Next Generation Molecular Data Storage

Introduction

Current long-term archival media (such as tape and disk) have several issues, the most important one being that they are short-lived (up to 5-10 years). This limitation forces data to be copied between storage media every few years in a costly process, which also produces considerable electronic waste.

Need for Longer-Lasting Media

Longer-lasting media are desperately needed, and DNA oligos have been identified as a major contender to be the next archival storage medium. With DNA, data is written using DNA synthesis and read using DNA sequencing. DNA is particularly promising as a storage medium due to its durability, as it can last for several hundreds of years.

Challenges in DNA Storage

However, storing data in DNA oligos is currently too expensive due to:

1. The exorbitant cost of DNA synthesis (~0.12 USD to write one bit).
2. Issues such as speed in writing (synthesis) and reading (sequencing).

Proposed Solution

For this reason, we propose to investigate storing data in DNA nanostructures. Our approach is based on producing DNA nanostructures, like a breadboard, and attaching streptavidin at a given set of locations. This allows us to:

• Write a one if streptavidin is present.
• Write a zero otherwise.

The major benefit of our approach is that all possible nanostructures can be built out of a predefined, small set of DNA oligos, which can be produced cheaply and en masse. Writing is therefore substantially cheaper.

Advantages of Our Approach

With our approach, writing, reading (based on atomic force microscopy), and editing are also substantially faster. Currently, editing information is infeasible with DNA storage based on oligos.

Proof of Concept

We have successfully demonstrated the feasibility of both writing and reading in proof-of-concept experiments, giving confidence in the approach.

Goal of the Proposal

The goal of this proposal is to scale up the basic but successfully tested idea to make this a feasible approach at a larger scale.

Team Expertise

The team proposing this work is ideally placed to make the research a success. The team brings all the necessary expertise together.