To DNA, all information is equal

TY - JOUR

T1 - To DNA, all information is equal

AU - Sennels, Lau

AU - Bentin, Thomas

PY - 2012/7

Y1 - 2012/7

N2 - Information storage capabilities are key in most aspects of society and the requirement for storage space is rapidly expanding. In principle, DNA could be a high-density medium for information storage. Church and coworkers recently demonstrated how binary data can be encoded, stored in, and retrieved from a library of oligonucleotides, increasing by several orders of magnitude the amount and density of manmade information stored in DNA to date. The technology remains in its infancy and important hurdles have yet to be overcome in order to realize its potential. However, DNA may be particularly useful as a storage-medium over long time-scales (centuries), because data-access is compatible with any large-scale DNA-sequencing and -synthesis technology.

AB - Information storage capabilities are key in most aspects of society and the requirement for storage space is rapidly expanding. In principle, DNA could be a high-density medium for information storage. Church and coworkers recently demonstrated how binary data can be encoded, stored in, and retrieved from a library of oligonucleotides, increasing by several orders of magnitude the amount and density of manmade information stored in DNA to date. The technology remains in its infancy and important hurdles have yet to be overcome in order to realize its potential. However, DNA may be particularly useful as a storage-medium over long time-scales (centuries), because data-access is compatible with any large-scale DNA-sequencing and -synthesis technology.

U2 - 10.1126/science.1226355

DO - 10.1126/science.1226355

M3 - Comment/debate

C2 - 23104084

SN - 1949-095X

VL - 3

SP - 1

EP - 3

JO - Artificial DNA

JF - Artificial DNA

IS - 3

ER -