A DNA-of-things storage architecture to create materials with embedded memory

• Published in: Nature biotechnology Vol. 38; no. 1; pp. 39 - 43
• Main Authors: Koch, Julian, Gantenbein, Silvan, Masania, Kunal, Stark, Wendelin J., Erlich, Yaniv, Grass, Robert N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Nature Publishing Group US 01.01.2020; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/1647; 631/1647/48; 631/208/212; 631/61/338; 639/301; Agriculture; Bioinformatics; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedical Engineering/Biotechnology; Biomedicine; Biotechnology; Computer architecture; Data storage; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; DNA - metabolism; DNA biosynthesis; DNA sequencing; DNA synthesis; Electronic devices; Electronic health records; Electronic medical records; Embedding; Gene Library; Information storage and retrieval; Letter; Life Sciences; Methods; Preservation, Biological; Printing, Three-Dimensional; Replication; Silica; Silicon dioxide; Steganography; Surgical implants; Synthesis; Switzerland
• ISSN: 1087-0156; 1546-1696
• DOI: 10.1038/s41587-019-0356-z

DNA storage offers substantial information density 1 – 7 and exceptional half-life 3 . We devised a ‘DNA-of-things’ (DoT) storage architecture to produce materials with immutable memory. In a DoT framework, DNA molecules record the data, and these molecules are then encapsulated in nanometer silica beads 8 , which are fused into various materials that are used to print or cast objects in any shape. First, we applied DoT to three-dimensionally print a Stanford Bunny 9 that contained a 45 kB digital DNA blueprint for its synthesis. We synthesized five generations of the bunny, each from the memory of the previous generation without additional DNA synthesis or degradation of information. To test the scalability of DoT, we stored a 1.4 MB video in DNA in plexiglass spectacle lenses and retrieved it by excising a tiny piece of the plexiglass and sequencing the embedded DNA. DoT could be applied to store electronic health records in medical implants, to hide data in everyday objects (steganography) and to manufacture objects containing their own blueprint. It may also facilitate the development of self-replicating machines. A DNA-based method for embedding data in materials enables the conversion of everyday objects into data storage devices.