VIMAL TORMAL PODDAR BCA COLLEGE

Seminar ON :- Seat No :- 2943

DNA
STORAGE
Gautam-Gohil
BCA-C-SEM-6

Guided By
Dr. Ishaan Tamhankar

VEER NARMAD SOUTH

GUJARAT UNIVERSITY
CONTENTS
 INTRODUCTION
 IMPORTANCE & FAILURES OF DNA STORAGE MEDIUM
 WHAT IS DNA?
 WHAT IS DIGITAL DATA STORAGE
 HISTORY
 HOW IS DATA STORED IN DNA?
 ENCODING AND DECODING TECHNIQUES
 ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES
 CHALLENGES
 CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION
• The demand for data storage devices is increasing day by day as more and more data is generated every day.
• Presently devices such as optical discs, portable hard drives, and flash drives are used to store data.
• All these non-biodegradable materials used in data storage pollute the environment. As the data increases, the current data
storage technology would not be enough to store data in future as data is growing every day.
• To backup our data, we are using various hard drives and big data centre's to harvest the important data.
• DNA is a very robust material and it has a long shelf life. The information stored in DNA can be recovered even after
thousands of years. As long as the DNA is stored in dry, dark and cold conditions, DNA can be stored for a long time. By
using Polymerase Chain Reaction techniques, it is possible to get as many copies as required. Thus, copying of data can be
done easily and many copies of data can be obtained. As DNA can retain information for centuries, DNA can be used for long-
term storage. Due to high density, the DNA can store a large amount of data in very small space
IMPORTANCE OF
DNA STORAGE MEDIUM
• High capacity High data storage density
• Withstand extreme environmental conditions
• High memory space
• Secure as invisible to human eye
• Effective power usage
• Can store data for long periods by protecting from water and oxygen
FAILURES OF
STORAGE MEDIUM
• Prone to damage from high temperature, moisture and magnetic fields.
• Function only within limited temperature range.
• Subject to decay over long periods.
• Non-bio degradable.
• Release high amounts of heat energy.
• Uses more energy for functioning.
WHAT IS DNA?
◦ Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a molecule that contains genetic instructions for the growth, development, reproduction, and
functioning of all known organisms and many viruses
◦ DNA is made up of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The two strands are held
together by weak hydrogen bonds between purine-pyrimidine nucleotide base pairs:
o Adenine (A): Paired with thymine (T) Guanine (G): Paired with cytosine (C)
WHAT IS DIGITAL DATA STORAGE
◦ DNA digital data storage refers to any process to store digital data in the base sequence of DNA.
◦ This technology uses artificial DNA made using commercially available oligonucleotide synthesis machines for storage and
DNA sequencing machines for retrieval.
◦ This type of storage system is more compact than current magnetic tape or hard drive storage systems due to the data density
of the DNA.
◦ DNA digital data storage is a technology that stores digital information in DNA molecules. It involves encoding and decoding
binary data to and from synthesized DNA strands.
◦ Currently it was reported that in 1 gram of DNA 455 exabytes (1 billion gigabytes) could be stored.
HISTORY
◦ The idea of DNA digital data storage dates back to 1959, when the physicist Richard P. Feynman, in "There's Plenty of Room at
the Bottom: An Invitation to Enter a New Field of Physics" outlined the general prospects for the creation of artificial objects
similar to objects of the microcosm (including biological) and having similar or even more extensive capabilities. In 1964-
65 Mikhail Samoilovich Neiman, the Soviet physicist, published 3 articles about microminiaturization in electronics at the
molecular-atomic level, where independently presented general considerations and some calculations regarding the
possibility of recording, storage, and retrieval of information on synthesized DNA and RNA molecules.

◦ In March 2017, Yaniv Erlich and Dina Zielinski of Columbia University and the New York Genome Center published a method
known as DNA Fountain that stored data at a density of 215 petabytes per gram of DNA. The technique approaches the
Shannon capacity of DNA storage, achieving 85% of the theoretical limit. The method was not ready for large-scale use, as it
costs $7000 to synthesize 2 megabytes of data and another $2000 to read it.

◦ In June 2019, scientists reported that all 16 GB of Wikipedia have been encoded into synthetic DNA.
HOW IS DATA STORED IN DNA?
Basic Method
• There are various techniques for storing the data in the DNA. In all methods, firstly the information is converted into digital
form if not. Then further processing is done. Various encoding techniques are also used in data storing in DNA, like Huffman
coding. The data is converted into binary codes, this process is called as binarization and these binary codes are further
converted into A, T, G, C sequence with the help of a device, and this process of conversion is called as DNA encoding. Then
further these ATGC sequences are synthesized into DNA molecules. And to read this information back from DNA, sequencing
of DNA fragments is done by using various algorithms. And various decoding techniques are used to decode the data from it.
Now, question arises is the random access of data possible? Yes in most of the techniques the random access of the data is
possible.
DNA MULTIPLICATION
• After determining what order the letters should go in, the DNA sequences are manufactured letter by letter with chemical
reactions. These reactions are driven by equipment that takes in bottles of A's, C's, G's and T's and mixes them in a liquid
solution with other chemicals to control the reactions that specify the order of the physical DNA strands.
• This process brings us another benefit of DNA storage : backup copies. Rather than making one strand at a time, the chemical
reactions make many identical strands at once, before going on to make many copies of the next strand in the series.
• Once the DNA strands are created, we need to protect them against damage from humidity and light. So we dry them out and
put them in a container that keeps them cold and blocks water and light.
• But stored data are useful only if we can retrieve them later.
ENCODING AND DECODING
TECHNIQUES
ENCODING DATA ON DNA
• Polymerase chain reaction based encoding scheme
• Alignment based encoding model
• Rewritable and RAM based DNA storage system
ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES
ADVANTAGES
• Storage capacity: DNA molecules can store large amounts of data in a small space.
• Energy efficiency: DNA storage is highly energy efficient and can be stored at room temperature.
• Stability: DNA molecules are incredibly stable and can resist degradation over time.
• Compression: DNA offers better compression than traditional digital methods.
• Physical density: DNA has higher physical density than traditional digital methods.
• Energetic cost: DNA has lower energetic cost than traditional digital methods
DISADVANTAGES
• Read and write times: Reading and writing DNA is a fairly slow process compared to other forms of data storage.
• Cost: DNA data storage is more expensive than storing in hard drives.
• Reliability: High costs, slow read and write times, and insufficient reliability has prevented its practical use.
• Random access: DNA-based data information lacks random access ability.
CHALLENGES
◦ The overall process of encoding, amplifying, sequencing, restructuring and decoding takes significantly more time than their
conventional counterparts.
◦ The retrieval process is slower than that of a personal computers.
◦ Many types of errors are associated with the current machines dealing with DNA.
◦ Low speed.
◦ Very high cost of production.
◦ Mutations in DNA.
CONCLUSION
• Thus, using DNA for data storage, it is possible to store huge amount of data in very less size.
• As DNA can retain data for millions of years, it is possible to store data for a long time.
• By using this technique, data is compressed and the security to the data is provided.
• Parallel reading of files is also possible enabling users to read multiple files at the same time.
• By using DNA multiplication, we can create number of copies of important data and can be distributed to servers.
• This technique can be used in future to store the whole data of the various companies in very small space.