Toward a DNA-Based Archival Storage System
Abstract
Storing data in DNA molecules offers extreme density and durability advantages that can mitigate exponential growth in data storage needs. This article presents a DNA-based archival storage system, performs wet lab experiments to show its feasibility, and identifies technology trends that point to increasing practicality.
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Data written directly into the DNA sequence theoretically allows 1 exabyte (or 1 billion gigabytes) to be stored in every cubic millimeter of DNA.
“While data written directly into the DNA sequence theoretically allows 1 exabyte (or 1 billion gigabytes) to be stored in every cubic millimeter of DNA,107”
From Emerging Approaches to DNA Data Storage: Challenges and Prospects (2022) · cites this paper as [107]
Cites
Next-Generation Digital Information Storage in DNA
Church, G. M., Gao, Y., & Kosuri, S. (2012) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1226355 · Cited by 1,441 · see citing works
Towards Practical, High-Capacity, Low-Maintenance Information Storage in Synthesized DNA
Goldman, N., Bertone, P., Chen, S., Dessimoz, C., LeProust, E. M., Sipos, B., & Birney, E. (2013) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature11875 · Cited by 1,220 · see citing works
Random access in large-scale DNA data storage
Organick, L., Ang, S. D., Chen, Y.-J., Lopez, R., Yekhanin, S., Makarychev, K., Racz, M. Z., Kamath, G., Gopalan, P., Nguyen, B., et al. (2018) · Nature Biotechnology · doi:10.1038/nbt.4079 · Cited by 775 · see citing works
Self-citationHiding messages in DNA microdots
Clelland, C. T., Risca, V. I., & Bancroft, C. (1999) · Nature · doi:10.1038/21092 · Cited by 638 · see citing works
The half-life of DNA in bone: measuring decay kinetics in 158 dated fossils
Allentoft, M. E., Collins, M., Harker, D., Haile, J., Oskam, C. L., Hale, M. L., Campos, P. F., Samaniego, J. A., Gilbert, M. T. P., Willerslev, E., et al. (2012) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rspb.2012.1745 · Cited by 633 · see citing works
A DNA-Based Archival Storage System
Bornholt, J., Lopez, R. M., Carmean, D. M., Ceze, L., Seelig, G., & Strauß, K. (2016) · International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems (ASPLOS) · doi:10.1145/2872362.2872397 · Cited by 346 · see citing works
Self-citationForward Error Correction for DNA Data Storage
Blawat, M., Gaedke, K., Hütter, I., Chen, X.-M., Turczyk, B., Inverso, S., Pruitt, B. W., & Church, G. M. (2016) · Procedia Computer Science · doi:10.1016/j.procs.2016.05.398 · Cited by 333 · see citing works
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Emerging Approaches to DNA Data Storage: Challenges and Prospects
Doricchi, A., Platnich, C. M., Gimpel, A., Horn, F., Earle, M., Lanzavecchia, G., Cortajarena, A. L., Liz-Marzán, L. M., Liu, N., Heckel, R., et al. (2022) · ACS Nano · doi:10.1021/acsnano.2c06748 · Cited by 235 · see citing works
Data storage in DNA with fewer synthesis cycles using composite DNA letters.
Anavy, L., Vaknin, I., Atar, O., Amit, R., & Yakhini, Z. (2019) · Nature Biotechnology · doi:10.1038/s41587-019-0240-x · Cited by 229 · see citing works
Probing the physical limits of reliable DNA data retrieval.
Organick, L., Chen, Y.-J., Dumas Ang, S., Lopez, R., Liu, X., Strauss, K., & Ceze, L. (2020) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-020-14319-8 · Cited by 135 · see citing works
Self-citationCombinatorial PCR Method for Efficient, Selective Oligo Retrieval from Complex Oligo Pools
Winston, C., Organick, L., Ward, D., Ceze, L., Strauss, K., & Chen, Y.-J. (2022) · ACS Synthetic Biology · doi:10.1021/acssynbio.1c00482 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Bornholt, J., Lopez, R., Carmean, D. M., Ceze, L., Seelig, G., & Strauss, K.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- Microsoft (United States) (US)
- Venue
- IEEE Micro
- Published
- 2017
- Volume
- 37
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 98-104
- ISSN
- 0272-1732 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2625597035
- Cited by
- 75
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 1.56
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- IEEE Micro (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › DNA and Biological Computing
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Networks and Communications › Advanced Data Storage Technologies
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Algorithms and Data Compression
- Keywords
- DNA data storage, archival storage, DNA synthesis, data storage density, data durability, DNA sequencing, storage technology trends
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