Storing data in DNA Microcapsules sounds like science fiction, but it’s close to the future. Professor Tom de Greef expects the first DNA database to be operational (The Future of Data Storage Lies in DNA Microcapsules) within five to ten years. Data will not be stored as zero on the hard drive, but in two pairs composed of DNA: AT and CG. Where such data will be taken in the form of a laboratory, many times smaller than today, De Greef can already imagine everything.
In one part of the building, new files will be encoded by DNA synthesis. Another part will have a large field of capsules, each of which is filled with storage. A robotic arm will remove the capsule, read its contents and replace it. We are talking about synthetic DNA.
In the laboratory, bases are joined together to form a synthetically produced strand of DNA. Files and photos that are currently stored in a data center can be stored in DNA. For now, the system is only suitable for security purposes. This is because reading archived data is expensive, so you want to scan the DNA file as little as possible.
Big data-powered companies are becoming obsolete
Storing data in DNA offers many benefits. The DNA files can be saved, for example, and live data is also a tall time. And perhaps more than the most important, the new technology makes people not in the level of database.
But it is very important, warns De Greef, “because in three years, we will create so much data in the world that we will not be able to save half of it.”
Together with PhD student Bas Bögels, Microsoft and a group of university partners, De Greef developed a new method to enable the innovation of data storage in synthetic DNA.
The results were published today in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. De Greef works at the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS) at TU Eindhoven and is a visiting professor at Radboud University.
Can be calculated
The idea of using DNA strands for data storage appeared in the 1980s, but it was very difficult and expensive at the time. This was technically possible thirty years later when DNA synthesis began to develop.
George Church, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School, developed the idea in 2011. Since then, the collection and reading of data has become much cheaper, finally bringing the technology to market.
In recent years, De Greef and his team have focused primarily on reading archived data. For the time being, this is the biggest problem facing this new technique. The PCR method currently used for this, called ‘random access’, is highly error-prone. So you can only read one file at a time and, in addition, the data quality degrades significantly each time you read a file.
Not exactly scalable. Here’s how it works: PCR (polymerase chain reaction) creates millions of copies of the DNA you need by adding primers to the desired DNA code. The Corona laboratory test, for example, is based on this: Even a small amount of the coronavirus from the nose is detected when it is copied several times. If you want to read a number of files at a time, you need many kinds of ways to work them at the same time. This developed a number of errors in a copy.
Each capsule contains a file
This is where capsules come in. De Greef’s team created a protein and polymer microcapsule, and put one file into one capsule. De Greef: “These capsules contain hot substances that we can use for our benefit.” Above 50 degrees Celsius, the capsules close, allowing the PCR process to take place separately in each capsule. Less room for error then. De grighf called a “light light”. In the lab, he has been able to read 25 books at one time without a serious error.
If you lower the temperature again, the prints come out of the capsule and were originally placed on the ground, which means that the quality of your original file does not deteriorate. De Greef: “We are now seeing a loss of 0.3% after three readings, compared to 35% in the current system.”
It can be searched using fluorescence
And that’s not all. De Greef has also made the data library easy to search. Each file receives a fluorescent label and each capsule in its own color. A device can then recognize the colors and separate them from each other. This brings us back to the imaginary robotic arm at the beginning of this story, which will carefully select the desired file in the pool of capsules in the future. This solves the problem of reading data. De Greef: “Now we have to wait for the cost of DNA synthesis to go down further. The system will be ready to use.
As a result, he hopes that the Netherlands will soon be able to open its first DNA database.
