Whatever happened to DNA-based storage research? - eviltoast

It seems like 6 or 7 years ago there was research into new forms of storage, using crystals or DNA that promised ultra high density storage. I know the read/write speed was not very fast, but I thought by now there would be more progress in the area. Apparently in 2021 there was a team that got a 16GB file stored in DNA. In the last month there’s some company (Biomemory) that lets you store 1KB of data into DNA for $1,000, but if you want to read it, you have to send it to them. I don’t understand why you would use that today.

I wonder if it will ever be viable for us to have DNA readers/writers… but I also wonder if there are other new types of data storage coming up that might be just as good.

If you know anything about the DNA research or other new storage forms, what do you think is the most promising one?

  • hazeebabee@slrpnk.net
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    11 months ago

    Density is defintly amazing in DNA, its just so fragile. Even our own bodies have a constant degridation of our DNA… I wonder if they could take that concept and make something sturdier by using slightly different molecules to make up the chains.

    Maybe shorter chains with stronger cross bonding & a gentle method of reading the chain could also help?

    Its definetly an interesting route & itll be cool to see what happens with it over the next 10-15 years.