Scientists say they have taken a major step forward in efforts to store information in the form of DNA molecules, which are more compact and long-lasting than other options.
The magnetic hard drives that we currently use to store computer data can take up a lot of space.
It must be replaced over time.
Using life's favorite storage medium to back up our precious data will allow massive amounts of information to be archived in tiny particles.
And, according to scientists, the data will also persist for thousands of years.
A team in Atlanta, US, has now developed a chip that they say can improve current forms of DNA storage by a factor of 100.
"The density of features on our new chips is about 100 times higher than on current commercial devices," Nicholas Guise, a senior researcher at the Georgia Technical Research Institute (GTRI), told BBC News.
"So once we add all the control electronics - which we will be doing over the next year of the program - we expect something like a 100-fold improvement over existing DNA data storage technology."
The technology works by growing unique strands of DNA, one building block at a time. These building blocks are known as bases - four distinct chemical units that make up the DNA molecule. They are: adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine.
The rules can then be used to encode information, in a similar way to the strings of ones and zeros (binary code) that carry data in traditional computing.
There are various potential ways to store this information in DNA - for example, the zero in the binary code can be represented by two bases adenine or cytosine and one can be represented by guanine or thymine. Alternatively, one and zero can be assigned to only two of the four bases.
If coordinated in DNA, the scientists said, absolutely every film could expand inside a volume smaller than a sugar cube.
Given how small and reliable it is, it is not surprising that there is now widespread interest in DNA as the next medium for archiving data to be kept indefinitely.
The on-chip structures used to grow DNA are called microwells a few hundred nanometers deep - less than the thickness of a sheet of paper.
The current microchip prototype is 2.5 cm (one inch) square and includes several microwells, allowing many strands of DNA to be synthesized in parallel. This will allow larger amounts of DNA to grow in a shorter period of time.
Since it is a prototype, not all microwave networks have been connected yet. This means that the total amount of DNA data that can be written on this particular chip is currently less than what the leading synthesizers can produce on commercial chips.
However, Dr. Guise explained that when everything is turned on, that will change. The current record of DNA digital data storage is approximately 200 MB, with the single synthesis running for approximately 24 hours. But the new technology can write 100 times more DNA data in the same amount of time.
The high cost of DNA storage has so far restricted the technology to "store customers", such as those seeking to archive information in time capsules.
The team at GTRI believe their work can help reshape the cost curve. It has partnered with two California biotech companies to offer a commercial demonstration of the technology: Twist Bioscience and Roswell Biotechnologies.
Storage of DNA data will not initially replace server farms for information that needs to be accessed quickly and frequently. Given the time required to read the sequence, the technology will be very useful for information that should remain available for a long time, but not frequently accessed.
This type of data is currently stored on magnetic tapes that must be replaced approximately every 10 years.
However, with DNA, “as long as you keep the temperature low enough, the data will stay for thousands of years, so the cost of ownership drops to almost zero,” explained Dr. Guise.
“It only costs a lot of money to write the DNA once at first and then read the DNA at the end. If we can get the cost of this technology competitive with the cost of writing data magnetically, the cost of storing and maintaining the information in the DNA should be lower. over many years.”
DNA storage has a higher error rate than traditional hard disk storage. In collaboration with the University of Washington, GTRI researchers have come up with a way to identify and correct these errors.
The work has been supported by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), which supports science directed toward overcoming challenges relevant to the US intelligence community.