Addressable configurations of DNA nanostructures for rewritable memory
Open accessAbstract
DNA serves as nature's information storage molecule, and has been the primary focus of engineered systems for biological computing and data storage. Here we combine recent efforts in DNA self-assembly and toehold-mediated strand displacement to develop a rewritable multi-bit DNA memory system. The system operates by encoding information in distinct and reversible conformations of a DNA nanoswitch and decoding by gel electrophoresis. We demonstrate a 5-bit system capable of writing, erasing, and rewriting binary representations of alphanumeric symbols, as well as compatibility with 'OR' and 'AND' logic operations. Our strategy is simple to implement, requiring only a single mixing step at room temperature for each operation and standard gel electrophoresis to read the data. We envision such systems could find use in covert product labeling and barcoding, as well as secure messaging and authentication when combined with previously developed encryption strategies. Ultimately, this type of memory has exciting potential in biomedical sciences as data storage can be coupled to sensing of biological molecules.
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The creation of many loops of different sizes, each distinguishable by gel electrophoresis, offers a greater number of possible bits in each lane.
“The creation of many loops of different sizes, each distinguishable by gel electrophoresis, offers a greater number of possible bits in each lane (Figure 9A).114”
From Emerging Approaches to DNA Data Storage: Challenges and Prospects (2022) · cites this paper as [114]
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- Authors
- Chandrasekaran, A. R., Levchenko, O., Patel, D. S., MacIsaac, M., & Halvorsen, K.
- Affiliations
- University at Albany, State University of New York (US)
- Corresponding author
- Chandrasekaran, Arun Richard
- Halvorsen, Ken
- Venue
- Nucleic Acids Research
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2017-08-30
- Volume
- 45
- Issue
- 19
- Pages
- 11459-11465
- ISSN
- 0305-1048 (ISSN-L)
- 1362-4962
- PMC
- PMC5737491
- OpenAlex
- W2750602899
- Cited by
- 79
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 3.91
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Nucleic Acids Research (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- State University of New York
- National Institutes of Health
- University at Albany
- Hansjörg Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R35GM124720)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › DNA and Biological Computing
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Advanced biosensing and bioanalysis techniques
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Nanopore and Nanochannel Transport Studies
- Keywords
- DNA nanostructures, DNA self-assembly, toehold-mediated strand displacement, rewritable memory, DNA nanoswitches, binary encoding, logical operations, DNA data storage, barcoding, DNA-based encryption, biosensing
- MeSH terms
- DNA, Viral, Electrophoresis, Agar Gel, Reproducibility of Results, Information Storage and Retrieval, Bacteriophage M13, Computers, Molecular, Nanostructures
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