Researchers developed a new sequencing technique to transform the double helix into a robust, sustainable data storage platform
DNA is nature’s own hard drive, which can store an unfathomable amount of data — just one gram of DNA having a capacity to store 215 million GB of data. The storage required to store the exponentially large amount of data that we are producing every day has created a huge challenge for scientists to come up with practical devices which can store it. Increased automation and digitization are only adding to this problem. And it is expected that By 2025, the amount of data generated each day is expected to reach 463 exabytes globally.
The only storage device which comes close to storing all this data is our DNA. However, the problem is how to scale it up for practical use and how to access the stored data on demand. Earlier in 2020, scientists developed an improved DNA storage mechanism dubbed DORIS — Dynamic Operations and Reusable Information Storage. DORIS is basically a significant improvement over polymerase chain reaction (PCR) — on which most of the existing DNA data storage systems rely on.
Then in 2021, scientists devised a tool that addressed the data retrieval challenges of the PCR DNA storage technique. DNA Enrichment and Nested Separation (DENSe) tool can sequence much smaller portions of the DNA files for preview, rather than sequencing all of the DNA.
“DNA is nature’s original data storage system. We can use it to store any kind of data: images, video, music — anything.”
~ Kasra Tabatabaei, Co-Author
Taking these breakthroughs even further, a multi-disciplinary team from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Stanford University came together to develop a precise new sequencing method to transform the DNA into a robust, sustainable data storage platform — effectively doubling its storage capacity.
The enabler of this innovative method was a precise new sequencing method. What makes DNA a viable source of data storage is its longevity and durability — which can last tens of thousands of years. No wonder scientists have been able to sequence fossilized strands to uncover genetic histories. Despite several petabytes of data that we produce daily, the density as a storage medium enables just one gram of DNA to store that.
“New, green technologies for DNA recording are emerging that will make molecular storage even more important in the future.”
~ Olgica Milenkovic, Researcher
Add to this DNA’s natural abundance and near-infinite renewability and the traits become unmatchable when you compare the existing storage mediums — which last for decades at best before being dumped as e-waste. According to the study, researchers expanded DNA’s already broad capacity for information storage by adding seven synthetic nucleobases to the existing four-letter lineup (A, G, C, and T).
In the process, the team has become the first to first to use chemically modified nucleotides for information storage in DNA. However, this presented a challenge — not all current technology is capable of interpreting chemically modified DNA strands. To address this challenge, the team used machine learning and artificial intelligence to develop a first-of-its-kind DNA sequence readout processing method.
This method could differentiate modified chemicals from the natural ones, and eventually differentiate each of the seven new molecules from one another. The machine learning system was able to successfully differentiate 77 different combinations of the 11 nucleotides that the researchers tested. As the previous research has shown and the current study suggests, the DNA might very well turn out to be the future of storage.
Complete Research was published in the Journal of Nano Letters.
medium.com
DNA is nature’s own hard drive, which can store an unfathomable amount of data — just one gram of DNA having a capacity to store 215 million GB of data. The storage required to store the exponentially large amount of data that we are producing every day has created a huge challenge for scientists to come up with practical devices which can store it. Increased automation and digitization are only adding to this problem. And it is expected that By 2025, the amount of data generated each day is expected to reach 463 exabytes globally.
The only storage device which comes close to storing all this data is our DNA. However, the problem is how to scale it up for practical use and how to access the stored data on demand. Earlier in 2020, scientists developed an improved DNA storage mechanism dubbed DORIS — Dynamic Operations and Reusable Information Storage. DORIS is basically a significant improvement over polymerase chain reaction (PCR) — on which most of the existing DNA data storage systems rely on.
Then in 2021, scientists devised a tool that addressed the data retrieval challenges of the PCR DNA storage technique. DNA Enrichment and Nested Separation (DENSe) tool can sequence much smaller portions of the DNA files for preview, rather than sequencing all of the DNA.
“DNA is nature’s original data storage system. We can use it to store any kind of data: images, video, music — anything.”
~ Kasra Tabatabaei, Co-Author
Taking these breakthroughs even further, a multi-disciplinary team from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Stanford University came together to develop a precise new sequencing method to transform the DNA into a robust, sustainable data storage platform — effectively doubling its storage capacity.
The enabler of this innovative method was a precise new sequencing method. What makes DNA a viable source of data storage is its longevity and durability — which can last tens of thousands of years. No wonder scientists have been able to sequence fossilized strands to uncover genetic histories. Despite several petabytes of data that we produce daily, the density as a storage medium enables just one gram of DNA to store that.
“New, green technologies for DNA recording are emerging that will make molecular storage even more important in the future.”
~ Olgica Milenkovic, Researcher
Add to this DNA’s natural abundance and near-infinite renewability and the traits become unmatchable when you compare the existing storage mediums — which last for decades at best before being dumped as e-waste. According to the study, researchers expanded DNA’s already broad capacity for information storage by adding seven synthetic nucleobases to the existing four-letter lineup (A, G, C, and T).
In the process, the team has become the first to first to use chemically modified nucleotides for information storage in DNA. However, this presented a challenge — not all current technology is capable of interpreting chemically modified DNA strands. To address this challenge, the team used machine learning and artificial intelligence to develop a first-of-its-kind DNA sequence readout processing method.
This method could differentiate modified chemicals from the natural ones, and eventually differentiate each of the seven new molecules from one another. The machine learning system was able to successfully differentiate 77 different combinations of the 11 nucleotides that the researchers tested. As the previous research has shown and the current study suggests, the DNA might very well turn out to be the future of storage.
Complete Research was published in the Journal of Nano Letters.
Innovative new technique doubles the DNA storage capacity
Researchers developed a new sequencing technique to transform the double helix into a robust, sustainable data storage platform
medium.com
