Storing Digital Information in DNA May Be Commercially Viable In The Near Future

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Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) have developed a process that would make storing digital information in DNA commercially viable.

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) are biological molecules containing genetic information used in the development and function of all known living organisms.

DNA stores information based on the arrangement of four chemical bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). The sequence of the bases determines how a particular cell or organism is maintained.

The way DNA stores information is similar to that of a computer. Instead of 0s and 1s in computer bits, DNA uses the A,G,C, and T bases. The four bases pair up to form a DNA base pair which is attached to a sugar and a phosphate molecule. The resulting structure from multiple base pairs attached to the sugar/phosphate molecule is the DNA double helix.

Last 2012, Harvard researchers used the four DNA nucleobases as binary markers. They substituted A and C for the digit 0 and the T and G for the digit 1. Whereas in computers, information would come out in 1s and 0s like 00101110011100, DNA encoded information would come out like this: TGAACCTCAAGTAACCTT.

Using this technique, they managed to store 700 terabytes of data in a single gram of DNA. Researchers at EMBL-EBI have managed to develop a process to encode information into DNA using next-generation DNA synthesis and sequencing technologies.

Method For Repeatedly Encoding, Storing and Erasing Digital Data within DNA of Living Cells Created

DNA is short for Deoxyribonucleic acid. It is a nucleic acid (biological molecules) containing genetic instructions used in the development and function of all known living organisms. Segments of DNA carrying information are called genes. Other DNA sequences are used for structural purposes and are involved in controlling and regulating the use of genetic information.

Along with RNA and proteins, DNA is one of the three major macromolecules that are essential for all known forms of life.

All cells in a person’s body contains the same DNA. Most of it can be found in the cell nucleus (nuclear DNA), but a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria (mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA).

The information in DNA is stored as a code made up of four chemical bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). Human DNA consists of about 3 billion bases, which is similar to every human being in the planet. The base sequence of these four chemical bases determines the information available for building and maintaining an organism

DNA was discovered in 1953 by James Watson and Francis Crick. Their discovery is now accepted as the first correct double-helix model of DNA structure.

Stanford bioengineers create rewritable digital data storage in DNA

Sometimes, remembering and forgetting are hard to do.

"It took us three years and 750 tries to make it work, but we finally did it," said Jerome Bonnet, PhD, of his latest research, a method for repeatedly encoding, storing and erasing digital data within the DNA of living cells.

Bonnet, a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University, worked with graduate student Pakpoom Subsoontorn and assistant professor Drew Endy, PhD, to reapply natural enzymes adapted from bacteria to flip specific sequences of DNA back and forth at will. All three scientists work in the Department of Bioengineering, a joint effort of the School of Engineering and the School of Medicine.

In practical terms, they have devised the genetic equivalent of a binary digit — a "bit" in data parlance. "Essentially, if the DNA section points in one direction, it's a zero. If it points the other way, it's a one," Subsoontorn explained.

"Programmable data storage within the DNA of living cells would seem an incredibly powerful tool for studying cancer, aging, organismal development and even the natural environment," said Endy.