What Is DNA Data Storage and How Does It Work?

How the world stores its data is an increasingly pressing concern. DNA data storage may sound like something out of sci-fi, but it could offer a real and promising solution to many of today’s data problems.

You may have heard about businesses using AI memory to store information, but what about something more biological? As strange as it sounds, scientists believe we could keep records in genetic form.

What Is DNA Data Storage?

DNA data storage is precisely what it sounds like — using DNA strands to hold information. Your genes are already a type of storage. They keep the details that make you human and, beyond that, make you unique as a person. That’s quite a lot of information, so it holds to reason that DNA could also store lots of other data, too.

The concept has been around longer than you may expect. Researchers proposed storing data on DNA within a decade of its discovery as the carrier of genetic information. The first attempt at actually doing so came in 1988 when an artist named Joe Davis converted an image into DNA and stored it in E. Coli.

Since then, DNA data storage hasn’t reached a point where businesses can practically use it on a large scale, but it has come a long way. Further research could revolutionize the data industry.

How Does DNA Data Storage Work?

While DNA is technically already a storage format, it doesn’t work like the digital and analog solutions in use today. Consequently, the process of storing and retrieving information looks a little different. Scientists are still working out the details to make it practical, but DNA storage follows four general steps — conversion, synthesis, storage and retrieval.

Convert Data

The first step in DNA data storage is to convert the information into a genetic format. Digital data resides in binary, which is a series of ones and zeros, and DNA is surprisingly similar. It uses a combination of four bases — A, C, G and T — so assigning a one or zero to each base is a fairly straightforward conversion.

Most scientists agree that this step should include some redundancy. Storing copies of the same information within the genes leaves some room for error if something in one of the more complicated steps messes with the records’ accuracy.

Synthesize DNA

Once you convert the binary data into DNA bases, you have to create a DNA strand containing this sequence. This is called DNA synthesis, and it’s already a normal practice in some applications. Biology labs often order hundreds of bases worth of DNA from synthesis companies to research specific genes.

There are two main approaches here. The first and most common is chemical synthesis, which uses chemical reactions to make short DNA strands quickly. The alternative uses enzymes, which is a more complex solution but could produce longer DNA strands, which will be helpful in the future.

Store DNA

After synthesis, you’ll have a DNA sequence holding your data. Now, you need a place to keep it safe. Just as hard drives require an ideal operating environment to avoid problems like overheating, DNA needs stable storage conditions so it doesn’t degrade over time.

Cold storage is the most obvious solution. Many labs store their genetic strands with liquid nitrogen to keep them cold and preserve their integrity. That often involves holding the stands in a solution, but it’s also possible to store DNA by itself, though it typically doesn’t last as long this way. Some researchers think you could even keep DNA on advanced silicon wafers, almost like a solid-state drive (SSD).

Read and Decode Data

The final stage of DNA data storage is actually using the information. When it’s time to analyze your data, you need to convert it back into a binary format. The key technology here is DNA sequencing, which has been around for a long time.

Some labs already sequence over 100,000 billion DNA bases each year, and new ways to identify them are always emerging. Once you know what bases you’re dealing with, a straightforward algorithm can convert the base-four code into binary, letting you use it like any other form of digital data.

What Are the Advantages of DNA Data Storage?

The main reason why you’d want to store data on DNA is because it’s remarkably storage-dense. DNA has at least 1,000 times the storage density of even the most advanced SSD today. It’s also 300 times as durable as magnetic tape, meaning you can hold on to valuable information for much longer.

That density and longevity are crucial as the world depends more and more on digital data. People create tons of information every day, and security experts recommend keeping multiple backups of everything important.

Without a way to store more information in less space for a longer time, these trends will quickly lead to a big problem. The world won’t be able to hold all its information. DNA could potentially meet all three of these requirements.

What Are the Challenges of DNA Data Storage?

As beneficial as DNA data storage is, it’s expensive. It would cost $1 trillion to write one petabyte of information as synthesized DNA with today’s technology. That’s far too much to justify. The process needs to be at least six times cheaper to be competitive with alternative storage methods.

Finding specific data in DNA could also be tricky. Because DNA is so dense but requires decoding to see what’s in it, it would be hard to find the particular strand you’re after when you need to know something.

It would likely also take new security methods to keep DNA storage safe. Cybercrime won’t go away, so experts will need to develop reliable biosecurity methods to protect this new medium from advanced threats.

DNA Could Be a Revolutionary Form of Data Storage

The world is still a ways away from DNA data storage becoming a viable reality for businesses and individuals. However, it’s not impossible. The practice has already made significant strides since people first suggested it.

Further research and development could lower the costs and provide better ways of labeling and securing storage-related synthesized DNA. When that happens, the world’s skyrocketing data volumes won’t pose as much of an issue.