Efforts to deploy useful data storage solutions based on synthetic DNA have been hampered by the requirement for inexpensive large oligo pools. Here, we describe efforts to design and scale systems based on massively parallel CMOS-based electrochemical synthesis arrays and review progress. |
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Reading & editing nucleic acids have opened doors in medicine, agriculture, forensics & environmental sciences. Mammalian cells contain ~6:24:600 pg of DNA:RNA:protein. Each cell could encode 1:6:1200 GBytes. Thus a 25g mouse encodes 4 zettabytes. Records for info storage duration are 2My:40ky:20My. Retrieval of molecular information can be highly targeted in space, time & topic (molecular IDs). Another grand challenge is reading & writing connectome data (1e12 & 1e15 synapses in mouse & human).
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DNA-of-things: Giving material a digital identity using DNA DNA data storage offers data stability for hundreds of years and experimentally proven data densities exceeding 40 exabytes per gram. While this brings opportunities in the field of cloud storage applications, our research focuses more on ideas in combining DNA data storage with materials. It is our ultimate goal to give materials a digital identity. We have so far investigated applications in 3d printing, pharmaceuticals, construction materials and polymer recycling. I will not only be discussing the technical advantages and limitations, but will also touch on practicability and technology commercialisation aspects. I will conclude the presentation on a second class of lesser-known digital technologies, which uses physical and chemical randomness to create unclonable functions, and allows a discussion of physical randomness in the context of digital cryptography. |
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DNA colonies based Next Generation Sequencing for massive data storage Next-generation sequencing is founded on the concept of simultaneously preparing millions of distinct DNA fragments using a “single-test-tube” protocol and serving as templates to generate self-assembling, surface-bound DNA colonies (amplicon clusters) that can be interrogated in parallel, one nucleotide at a time. This approach enables the massively parallel sequencing of biological samples at a speed and cost that have profoundly transformed genetics, genomics, diagnostics, forensics, and environmental sciences. In this presentation, I will first introduce the molecular principles underlying next-generation sequencing, tracing their “lemanic roots” origins to work started in 1996 in the Lake Geneva region. Building on a detailed understanding of these molecular mechanisms, I will then discuss how they can be adapted to extend beyond bioscience sequencing, opening the way to DNA-based methods for massive, compact, and long-lasting information storage. |
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