dna as an information storage device

1. DNA as an information
storage device

2. CONTENTS:
 Introduction
 What is DNA?
 Why we are preferring DNA as an
information storage device?
 How information is stored in DNA?
 Coding Table
 Advantages and Disadvantages
 Future Scope
 Conclusion

3. Introductio
n
Since time immemorial mankind has wanted to share
information for later use.
 Starting from the caveman paintings and symbols, we
have entered into the computer age and digitization.
 At present we have so many storage devices like hard
discs,magnetic tapes,pen drives etc.
 But even so ,the amount of information to be stored is growing
exponentially.

4. “ That means cost is increasing
but our budgets are not “
So it’s the time to use innovative substitute
i.e., long lived ,stable and easily synthesized .
That is nothing but
DNA

5. What is DNA?
• Deoxyribo nucleic acid
• It is a molecule that encodes the genetic instructions.
• Most DNA molecules are double-stranded helices.
• Each molecule consists of two long biopolymers made of simpler
units called nucleotides—each nucleotide is composed of a
nucleobase recorded using the letters G, A, T, and C.
• DNA is well-suited for biological information storage.

7. Why we are preferring DNA as an
information storage device?
• Companies, governments and universities face an enormous challenge
Storing the ever-growing flood of digitized information.
• Some experts have looked for answers in biology. In recent
years, they have found ways to encode trademarks in cells and
poetry in bacteria.
• But these biological things eventually die. By contrast, DNA
is stable, durable and dense.
• DNA could hold vastly more information than the same surface
volume of a disk drive.

8. How
stored
information
in DNA?
is

10. .
Coding System
Encoding Table
Quaternary number system
DNA sequence
compression

11. Example for coding of information
First we should use numbers to represent the letters in ASCII code
From ASCII table
V=86
V=86
I=73
T=84
Use “A ,T, C & G” to represent the numbers
0=A
1 =T
2=C
3=G
VVIT 1112111210211110
TTTCTTTCTACTTTTA
Change to quaternary numbers
• 86= 1112
• 86= 1112
• 73 = 1021
• 84 = 1110
This A ,G, C, T sequence avoids any reading errors,
particularly when encountering repetitive base
sequences. Also, rather than synthesize one long
string of DNA to code for an entire item of
information, they broke the file down to smaller
chunks, so that no errors occur during synthesis or
read-out. These chunks are then read in an
appropriate manner or protocol, providing for 100
per cent accuracy.

12. Example of Existing Technology: DNA Chip
• By adapting methods of microprocessor manufacturing, Affymetrix, a Californiabased company, has created microchips that contain thousands of distinct DNA
probes on a glass substrate .
• The glass is coated with a grid of tiny spots, ~20mm in diameter, each spot
containing millions of copies of a short sequence of DNA.
• A computer keeps track of the location of each DNA sequence. After the
information was encoded into the DNA, drops of DNA were attached to
microarray chips for storage.
• The chips were kept at 4°C for three months and then dissolved and sequenced.

13. DNA
CHIP

14. How much information can be stored in DNA?
Goldman and co have been able to store 2.2 petabytes
in one gram of DNA . DNA would allow at least 100 million hours of highdefinition video to be stored in a teacup.

15. What did Goldman and group store in DNA?
1. They stored all 154 sonnets of Shakespeare (in ASCII text),
2. The 1953 Watson-Crick paper on the DNA double helix (in PDF
format),
3. A colour photograph of Hinxton (in JPEG) and
4. A clip from the “I have a Dream” speech of Martin Luther King (in
MP3 format).

16. Features of DNA for using it as an information
storage device:
• Long-lived, stable and easily synthesized.
• Needs no active maintenance.
• Stores digital files without electricity for thousands of years.
• Last for tens of thousands of years .
• We can store 2.2 peta bytes in one gram of DNA.
• Highly reliable.

17. DISADVANTAGES:
•Today the Speed is low .
• Cost is high.

18. FUTURE ENHANCEMENT:
Goodbye Silicon, Hello DNA. The Future of Data Storage device.
DNA can be used in :
1.DNA Computing
2.DNA Nanotechnology

19. Conclusion:
The longer you want to store information, then, the more attractive DNA
becomes. And the cost of sequencing and synthesising DNA is falling fast.,
"There's no problem with holding a lot of information in DNA”,
"The problem is paying for doing that“.
we can't get obsessed with the fact that it may not be practical today. If we do
any reasonable projection of current trends 5 or 10 years into the future you
see that this is in the sweet spot.

20. Natural selection and
evolution have used DNA to
store and read out to make
our bodies and we are now
using DNA to store and
archive the products of
our brains…….
what a twist!