DNA cassette tapes could solve global data storage problems

Our increasingly digitized world has a data storage problem. Hard drives and other storage media are reaching their limits, and we are creating data faster than we can store it. Fortunately, we don’t have to look too far for a solution, because nature already has a powerful storage medium with DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). It is this genetic material that Xingyu Jiang at the Southern University of Science and Technology in China and colleagues are using to create DNA storage cassettes.

DNA is the ultimate data storage solution because it is compact, dense and durable. It can hold an enormous amount of information in a microscopic space and preserve that data for thousands of years without needing electricity. Theoretically, the DNA in a single human cell has a capacity of approximately 3.2 gigabytes, which equates to roughly 6,000 books, 1,000 pieces of music or two movies.

Scientists have known about DNA’s potential as a storage solution for a long time, but the challenge up until now has been to create a viable system that we can use. In a new study published in the journal Science Advances, researchers describe how they made a DNA cassette similar to cassette tapes that were staples in personal and car stereos in the 1980s.

How it works

The team first created the physical tape from a polyester-nylon blend. Then they printed barcode patterns on it to make millions of tiny, separate sections, similar to folders on a computer. This lets the system find the exact spot where the data is stored. Accessing information has been one of the problems of previous DNA storage techniques.

To store a file, digital data is first translated into a DNA sequence. The four bases, or building blocks of DNA (A, G, C, and T) act as a code, similar to the zeroes and ones that computers use. The researchers also coated the tape with a protective crystalline layer to protect the DNA bonds from breaking down.

Finally, they proved the system works by converting a digital image into DNA, then successfully and quickly retrieving it from the tape.

“DNA cassette tape provides a strategy for fast, compact, large-scale DNA-based cold (infrequently accessed) or warm (needed on demand) data storage,” wrote the scientists in their paper.

If it takes off, DNA cassette technology could offer a scalable solution for data centers facing space and energy constraints, potentially replacing big, clunky servers with a more efficient and sustainable method of storing the world’s information.

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