MI-DNA DISC · MIcrobe-synthesised DNA NAnostructures for DIsplay-controlled Storage Cartridges

DNA has a huge potential for the long-term storage of large amounts of data. However, writing, editing, and reading DNA-based data is expensive and inefficient with current technologies. Our vision is to develop a low-cost, energy-efficient, and fast data drive that is able to write, edit, store, and retrieve DNA-based data. The data drive is based on simple and easily available hardware components plus bacterial cells. The proposed technological solution enables the short-, medium-, and long-term storage of DNA-based data. To achieve this vision, we will exploit bacterial genetic mechanisms that were evolutionarily optimized for billions of years, such as colour-sensitive genetic switches and DNA exchange processes. We have defined two specific objectives to achieve our goal. As a proof-of-concept, we will store a large trajectory file of a molecular dynamics simulation encoded on DNA. Our consortium has six partners from four European countries. One research organisation, two university, and two SMEs will work together to achieve the outlined vision.