Microsoft's research division is developing a technology that allows the storage of digital information in synthetic genetic material. A work that seems to come from a distant future seems to come to life through the company Twist Bioscience, the contributor of the original idea and with whom they work together.
Twist Bioscience is a young company, the result of a startup, factory-oriented and use of synthetic DNA. This research also includes the University of Washington, who jointly plan be able to store millions of data in just a few microns in size.
The objective of this approach is twofold. On the one hand, coding in DNA would allow compact a large amount of information in a really small space, and we are talking about something smaller than the size of a cell. Also, this type of support could exceed the finite lifespan of current storage media, since the genetic material has an estimated life of thousands of years.
Regarding the amount of data that can be stored in genes, according to university scientists, it would be about 700 terabytes in just one gram, but in the words of the CEO of the company Twist Bioscience: «With the use of DNA, all the knowledge of the planet could fit inside the trunk of a car«.
The cost of production using this system is not particularly expensive, since the treatment of genes has decreased considerably thanks to the use of large sequencers that have allowed going from 2.700 million dollars to trace a single complete human genome in 2003 to the present time, where there is the option of having your own genome on mobile for less than $ 1.000.
At the moment the interest that Microsoft has in storing such amount of information inside small strands of DNA is unknown, but based on the characteristics that we have described, it seems that it will be for a long period of time. Even if the project is still in an early stage of development and it is commercially viable, it will not be for a few years when we can see some of its results.
On the other hand, Twist Bioscience has recently acquired another small startup that will allow you to have everything you need to build your own independent synthetic DNA manufacturing platform.