Synthetic DNA: Shaping the Future of Data Archiving – Breakthroughs and Challenges

The amount of digital data generated worldwide is growing at an unprecedented rate, with 90% of it created in just the past two years. This explosive growth is driving an unsustainable consumption of limited resources and energy, all while raising concerns about the long-term integrity and durability of data storage. Interestingly, 70% of this data is ‘cold,’ meaning it’s rarely accessed and could remain inactive for decades. As a result, finding a sustainable solution for digital storage is becoming a critical challenge for humanity. One groundbreaking solution gaining attention is the use of synthetic DNA as a storage medium, which has the potential to store up to 215 petabytes of data in a single gram. In vitro, any form of digital information can be encoded into DNA, which can then be preserved in tiny capsules with a storage lifespan of several centuries. Retrieving this data is possible with specialized machines known as sequencers. In this presentation, we’ll explore the cutting-edge developments in DNA data storage, particularly focusing on the use of a quaternary code based on the four DNA bases—Adenine (A), Thymine (T), Cytosine (C), and Guanine (G). We’ll also introduce an innovative approach we’ve developed at the I3S laboratory for encoding digital images into synthetic DNA. This method balances the challenges of DNA storage with an optimised trade-off between compression quality and synthesis costs.