DNA Instead of Hard Drives? Major Grant for New Research on Data Storage
A research project at KTH Royal Institute of Technology on how data can be stored in DNA was recently awarded the Proof of Concept Grant from the European Research Council. The research aims to make the storage process both cheaper and simpler.
‘It was a complete surprise to me. Since last year, when we found out that we had been placed on the reserve list, I had more or less written this off as a rejection. It feels a bit like we've come back from the dead," says Ian Hoffecker, Assistant Professor at KTH's Department of Gene Technology.
His research project has been awarded €150,000, or approximately SEK 1.7 million, by the European Research Council (ERC).
Sustainable method
At a time when the world’s accumulated data—images, films, and text—is growing at an ever-increasing pace, many different approaches to information storage are being explored. According to Ian Hoffecker, DNA storage is seen as a sustainable way to store enormous amounts of data with very little maintenance. It takes up extremely little space and can last for a very long time. When the data stored in DNA needs to be read, a sequencing technique is used, which can be simply described as a machine that translates DNA sequences into digital information.
"It all sounds great, right? The problem lies in the writing step of the data storage pipeline – that’s the real bottleneck. For 1 MB of storage, it costs around USD 10,000 (approximately SEK 100,000) and can take several weeks, which is of course not very practical,” Hoffecker says.
Radically different
One reason for the high costs is that new DNA currently has to be synthesized each time data is stored. Hoffecker’s idea is to store data in DNA that has already been synthesized. This could potentially make the process both cheaper and simpler.
"Our project is based on a radically different strategy for writing DNA-based data, circumventing this synthesis bottleneck."
The research team also includes Ferenc Fördös at Karolinska Institutet (MBB), and Ragnar Thobaben at KTH/EECS.
"Our immediate focus right now is on identifying and testing the most future-proof and scalable version of this technology," Hoffecker says.
Patent applied for
As part of the plan to commercialize the research, he has already begun preparations for a spin-off company and filed a patent with support from KTH Innovation.
"We see this as a potential part of the future data economy, alongside hard drives and magnetic tape, contributing to the preservation of the world’s ever-growing accumulation of information," Hoffecker says.
Text: Jonatan Järbel ( jarbel@kth.se )