4 ms·
DNA stores data in bits after epigenetic upgrade
- nuc1e0n 2y agoThey should store data in DNA using base64. DNA encodes things using groups of 3 base pairs and there are 4 types of base pairs: C,G, A an T. 4^3 is 64
- GlibMonkeyDeath 2y agoThis is an interesting approach because they use a modified set of oligos to sequentially hybridize to a universal backbone strand of DNA. A methyltransferase then marks the universal backbone depending on whether a 1 or 0 oligo was hybridized to its (unique) backbone position. You can read out the long, methylated backbone strand with nanopore sequencing. Also, the data writing process doesn't use the nasty chemicals that are used for synthetic DNA synthesis (of course these chemicals are needed for the backbone and oligos, but that process scales well in bulk.) The downside of this approach is that the data writing throughput and cost is pathetic, even using the fastest, most parallel inkjet printing available. Maybe useful for a write once/read after the apocalypse scenario, but it won't be competitive with magnetic storage any time soon.