DNA Successfully Used as Data Storage Medium, 5-byte Message Written, Stored, and Read

[btarunr]

DNA, the most prominent genetic material, was successfully used as an end-to-end digital data storage medium. Nature reports that a team of biotechnologists led by Christopher N. Takahashi, Bichlien H. Nguyen, Karin Strauss & Luis Ceze with the University of Washington at Seattle, sponsored by DARPA and Microsoft, have succeeded in encoding and decoding digital information into DNA strands. With it, the team has developed an end-to-end DNA-based data storage device, which consists of an encoder that writes ones and zeroes into DNA sequences that are written into oligonucleotides; a liquid physical storage media in which the DNA is literally stored free from contamination and thermal hazards; and a decoder that consists of a nanopore sequencer.

The researchers have developed a protocol on how to convert 1s and 0s to A-G, C-T base-pairs, including error-correction. A 5-byte message "HELLO" was successfully encoded, stored, and decoded without data loss over a period of 21 hours. DNA-based storage unlocks innumerable possibilities. For starters, in the future, humans will be able to grow storage devices, store foreign information within their genome, and transmit digital information through plasmid agents such as purpose-built viruses. 007 writers must be rubbing their hands.



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[Metroid]

"Year 2281" here we go again.

 

[diatribe]

One step closer.

 

[s3thra]

One step closer.

Ooh, it's been years since I thought about that movie. Need to watch again.

 

[happita]

Plasmid agents? It's Bioshock!

 

[Fx]

This is great news. I finally wont have to buy hard drives and SSDs anymore. Who knew that I had all the storage I'll ever need. Quite convenient being that it is mass, local, mobile, always-on, non-volatile, low-latency, backed up, redundant and free!

Now if I could just harness my powers of telepathy...

 

[FordGT90Concept]

21 hours? Check in 10 years and see if it is still readable.

 

[Mescalamba]

Eventually they will realize that God is just coding guy.

 

[Splinterdog]

The lunatics are in my head...

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Give them 10 more years they might get a whole file name saved.
But why.

 

[xkm1948]

Yep.

The reality is a lot closer than you think. The industry power house. yeast, has been genomically manupulated to a point that it should be considered a new family of organism now comparing to their wild type relatives. Mosanto has been adding DNA barcodes to specific strain of industrial yeast to make sure no commercial DNA sequencing can detect their genetically enhanced yeasts' secret . This of course is a very primitive way. However the implication is already fairly huge.

DNA as data storage is really not for high speed access (for now), more for long term storage. With so many DNA repair machinery in live cells it would be extremely difficult to have data corruption when you consider data storage in geological time scales.

And I also agree, evolution has been the master of programmer all along. As I said a lot of times before and I will continue say it in the future: genomic coding and programming will be huuuuuge in the next 20 years. If you have a kid now better get them started in learning genetic programming early.

 

[64K]

I think we have a better shot at some new material to replace silicon like perhaps graphene but there's nothing wrong with researching this. You never know when some smart scientists and engineers might get a big breakthrough.

 

[blobster21]

How long before the first Johnny Mnemonic emerge ?

In 2021, Johnny is a "mnemonic courier" with a data storage device implanted in his brain, allowing him to discreetly carry information too sensitive to transfer across the Net, the virtual-reality equivalent of the Internet. While lucrative, the implant has cost Johnny his childhood memories, and he seeks to have the implant removed to regain his memories; his handler, Ralfi assigns him one more job that would cover the costs of the operation (which are extremely expensive), sending Johnny to Beijing to collect the latest information. Johnny is told that the information exceeds his current memory capacity of 80 gigabytes, but he acquires a compression unit that effectively doubles the amount he can hold.

He meets with the client, a group of frantic scientists who tell him that they want him to carry 320 gigabytes of memory; Johnny accepts this, knowing that the overflow data will by uploaded directly into his brain which can cause psychological damage and death if not removed within a few days. Johnny uploads the data to his storage, with the scientists selecting three random images from a television screen to use as an encryption key. Just as the scientists are about to send the key to the data's receiver in Newark, New Jersey, they are massacred by Yakuza. Johnny manages to escape with a portion of the encryption key.

While returning to Newark, Johnny is pursued by Pharmakom, a global pharmacological company; its executive Takahashi hired the Yakuza to recover it. However, the Yakuza, led by Shinji, want to take the data and claim it for themselves. Takahashi discovered this, and instead hired Karl, the Street Preacher, to recover Johnny's head. Johnny finds Ralfi is in the Yakuza's employ, and prepares to kill Johnny to recover the storage unit, but Johnny is rescued by Jane, a cybernetically-enhanced bodyguard, along with help from the anti-establishment Lo-Teks and their leader J-Bone. Jane takes Johnny to meet Spider, a doctor who installed Jane's implants. Spider reveals he and his allies were the intended recipient of the data Johnny has, which they believe is the cure for "nerve attenuation syndrome" (NAS) , a plague ravaging mankind due to over-dependence on technology. Spider claims Pharmakon discovered the cure but refused to publish it, profiting on the costs of mitigating the effects of NAS. Without the full encryption key, Spider cannot recover the data, nor safely remove the implant without killing Johnny or destroying the data, and suggest he see Jones at the Lo-Tek base, Heaven. Karl follows Johnny to the clinic and kills Spider, but Johnny and Jane escape.

 

[natr0n]

Once you get nephilim dna in you; you are done with forever.

 

[NdMk2o1o]

hardly breaking news this was done 2 years ago, I knew it sounded familiar and had be done previously just couldn't think of when I had seen it: https://www.theguardian.com/science...revolution-in-biology-by-embeding-film-on-dna

Here's another instance even going back to 2012: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/...rams-700-terabytes-of-data-into-a-single-gram

 

[R-T-B]

One step closer.

Except for the part where storing non-genetic info in DNA had absolutely nothing to with that movie, or it's message.

hardly breaking news this was done 2 years ago, I knew it sounded familiar and had be done previously just couldn't think of when I had seen it: https://www.theguardian.com/science...revolution-in-biology-by-embeding-film-on-dna

Here's another instance even going back to 2012: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/...rams-700-terabytes-of-data-into-a-single-gram

Same, I've read this as "first" more times than I can count.

But why.

Longevity. And at any rate, if we all thought in "why?" type patterns of the first prototypes results we'd still be storing things in magnetic coil arrays.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

stage 2 biometrics, first the scan, now the johnny mnemonic drive, just insert a finger. No wires, no hardware, not even a data port, true plug and play.

 

[XiGMAKiD]

DNA Random Access Memory

So cyberpunk, much awesome, very cool. Wow

 

[metalfiber]

Bio neural gel pack is yet another Star Trek innovation that one day might come to be.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Bio-neural_gel_pack

 

[eidairaman1]

Too vulnerable

 

[Legacy-ZA]

Eventually they will realize that God is just coding guy.

Once you get nephilim dna in you; you are done with forever.

Matthew 24:22King James Version (KJV)
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

Jesus warned us that this will be one of the signs before His return; all things are drawing to a close.

 

[Xaled]

Greed and narcissism will terminate humanity

 

[Baum]

i stored my porn on dna now it is sticky all over the place

seriously a media that dislikes UV Rays and heat/cold isn't a good option i say

 

[Caring1]

Matthew 24:22King James Version (KJV)
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

Jesus warned us that this will be one of the signs before His return; all things are drawing to a close.

I'm not sure what your point is, but it's clear we are all going to die some day.

 

[R-T-B]

Greed and narcissism will terminate humanity

Far more likely than any Jesus-era predictions.

I'm not sure what your point is, but it's clear we are all going to die some day.

Indeed. The whole thing is pretty pointless as this is only about encoding info in DNA even IF you believe in biblical propephecies from over 2000 years ago.

Too vulnerable

DNA is actually pretty hardy.