DNA microcapsules could be the future of data storage

STORING DATA in DNA lies in the near future according to Professor Tom de Greef (left) of Eindhoven University of Technology who expects the first DNA data centre to be up and running within five to ten years. Data won’t be stored as zeros and ones in a hard drive but in the base pairs that make up DNA: AT and CG. Such a data centre would take the form of a lab many times smaller than those today.

In the lab, bases are stuck together in a certain order to form synthetically produced strands of DNA. Files and photos that are currently stored in data centres can then be stored in DNA. For now, the technique is suitable only for archival storage. This is because the reading of stored data is very expensive, so you want to consult the DNA files as little as possible.

Data storage in DNA offers many advantages. A DNA file can be stored much more compactly, for instance, and the lifespan of the data is also many times longer. But perhaps most importantly, this new technology would render large, energy-guzzling data centres obsolete.

De Greef has developed a new technique to make the innovation of data storage with synthetic DNA scalable. The results have been published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology here.