The DNA of things
DNA synthesis will allow storing information in household items
Sergey Shapiro, XX2 century
Researchers have developed a technology and architecture for the production of materials with built-in indelible memory using DNA. A bank of encoded information of a solid volume stored in microscopic glass granules can be placed or hidden inside any object made of plastic or similar material, and use it by taking a small fragment of the object and deciphering the information from DNA.
The new data storage architecture is called "DNA of things" (DNA of things, or DoT), by analogy with IoT ("Internet of Things"). As part of DoT technology, DNA molecules are used to encode and store information. Then they are imprinted into microscopic glass beads that can be melted into objects made of a suitable material (usually plastic) any shape. In particular, these balls can be added to the plastic mass for three-dimensional printing or casting. As information, you can encapsulate instructions for reproducing the object itself on the printer, which gives this method a similarity to the principle of DNA in nature: the source material contains information about cloning the object. An article about this development was published in November in Nature Biotechnology (Koch et al., A DNA-of-things storage architecture to create materials with embedded memory).
Living organisms store their "work programs" in their own DNA, including information about the reproduction of an individual of their species in the next generations. For the manufacture of inanimate objects, for example, for 3D printing, a set of instructions is needed, separate from the object and unrelated to it: an object printed on a 3D printer itself does not contain information about how to reproduce it in the future.
A group of researchers from ETH in Zurich (German. Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich) and several Israeli research centers have developed a way to store an extensive amount of information, including instructions for reproducing it through 3D printing, in the object itself. This development is a logical consequence of the development of modern technologies. Coding of information in synthesized DNA is a popular trend in recent years at the intersection of information theory and genetics. One of the authors of this work, Robert Grass, introduced a method of marking materials using a "barcode" of DNA imprinted into nanoscale glass beads. Such nanosheets are used in industry to label some "branded" products and materials, thereby allowing them to be distinguished from fakes; they are also used by geologists as labeled particles, for example, to study the spread of groundwater. The DNA barcode contained only 100 bits of information, and the development of an architecture based on such repositories consists, first of all, in increasing their capacity to the usual mega- and gigabytes. The second author of the work, an Israeli specialist in the theory of computing systems Yaniv Erlich, has developed a method that theoretically allows storing 200 terabytes of information in one gram of DNA.
As a working example, the researchers printed a plastic rabbit on a 3D printer, which stores information (about 50 kilobytes of data) on how to print this plastic rabbit on a 3D printer. To do this, small glass balls containing the "DNA" of the object are added to the plastic mass. It turned out to be a rabbit with a built-in drawing with instructions for "self-reproduction". Moreover, like real DNA, complete information about copying is stored in any part of the product in this way and you can take a small piece of the model for reproduction. In the experiment, it was possible to demonstrate "DNA cloning" in several generations: a small piece of plastic was plucked from the model, and according to the information contained in it, a "descendant" rabbit was reproduced on the seal. Thus, it was possible to obtain five cloned "generations" of the original 3D print.
A pilot experiment to print a figurine with information encoded in DNA. From an article in Nature Biotechnology.
The obvious application of this technology is the hiding of information in ordinary objects, which it is difficult for an uninitiated person to suspect as a data warehouse. Glass micro beads with a large amount of information can technically be imperceptibly fused into any plastic object, for example, glasses; moreover, they can exist inside bodies in a solid or liquid state. To preserve the information, it is sufficient that the storage item is not exposed to too high temperatures during manufacture and subsequently. Experts call such technologies for hiding information in household items the term "steganography".
The "Instructions for making a rabbit" contained only 45 kilobytes of information. Further steps towards the industrial use of technology include not only checking reproducibility in "generations", but also checking the possibility of scaling, that is, using such storage for any information, preferably a solid volume comparable to traditional storage devices. Scientists encoded a 1.4 MB video clip using the "DNA of things" and fused glass microgranules with DNA into plastic glasses. They then managed to decode the video by taking a small piece of the lens and sequencing DNA from it. Scientists also managed to encrypt one music album in DNA – 15 MB of information.
Another area of application of the "DNA of things" technology – labeling of medicines or building materials, for example, paints or binding solutions. This will allow you to store information about the manufacturer, as well as the necessary data on acceptance tests and quality certificates in the products themselves and instantly read such information from the product itself. Also, this technique will make it possible to more effectively track counterfeits and monitor the identity of the material.
The undoubted advantage of the technology is the potential durability of data carriers, which far exceeds the durability of modern DVDs and magnetic drives. However, today such a DNA seal is too expensive. So, the cost of reproducing the same plastic rabbit, according to the authors' calculations, is 2000 Swiss francs. An essential part of the round sum is the synthesis of the corresponding DNA molecules. Probably, in mass production, the costs per unit of product will be lower, but so far such rabbits are unlikely to pay off for free sale.
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