Molecular Storage System (MoSS): Intelligent DNA Data Storage

Introduction

Molecular Storage System (MoSS): Intelligent DNA Data Storage

Several groups, including Helixworks, have demonstrated DNA storage systems over the last few years. The information stored has steadily increased from a few kilobytes to several hundred megabytes.

Current Challenges

However, current DNA synthesis techniques based on phosphonamidite chemistry are designed for manufacturing error-free DNA for biological applications. Today, synthetic DNA costs $0.001 per nucleotide, making DNA storage seven orders of magnitude more expensive than tape.

Project Background

Based on results generated from the FET Open project "OligoArchive" (grant agreement 863320), three of the participants (Helixworks Technologies Limited, Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine, and EURECOM) are seeking to take the OligoArchive results further, through the development of MoSS—a new DNA storage system based on a novel enzymatic technique for writing DNA at scale. This innovation was assessed by the JRC’s Market Creation Potential indicator framework as having a "High" level of market creation potential.

Research Objectives

In MoSS, we will investigate novel enzymatic synthesis techniques that can dramatically reduce the cost of DNA synthesis by exploiting the fact that using DNA as a data storage medium does not require precise, error-free synthesis.

Consortium Expertise

Our consortium members are at the forefront in both:

• Academic research (Imperial, EURECOM) in structural biology (especially DNA-binding proteins), synthetic biology, and automation (including cell-free protein synthesis)
• Industrial research (Helixworks) in pursuing novel, scalable, enzymatic synthesis techniques that can offer a low-cost, high-throughput write path to DNA storage.