NSF Award
2403352
The last few decades have brought rapid innovation and cheaper deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) based technologies. At the same time, the massive amount of information created by society has created a new urgency to discover and develop better data storage technologies that can more densely and cheaply house data for long periods of time. Together, these trends have motivated broad interest in harnessing the density and robustness of DNA to store vast troves of digital information. To date, only small-scale prototypes of DNA-based data storage have been demonstrated by academia and industry. These systems were studied at a scale far below that which is needed to deploy useful storage technologies. A major challenge in scaling up to practical applications is that many distinct molecules are crowded in a very small space without any spatial order. These molecules interact in highly complex ways that currently exceed the limits of scientists or computer simulations to directly study in detail. Prior work attempted to limit such interactions in the design of the DNA molecules so that the systems would be easier to understand and control. However, as a result, scalability is also limited, and the richness of possible molecular interactions is curtailed. This project takes a different view, hoping to leverage even weak interactions between molecules in useful ways, inspired by the complex chemistries of life. New computational approaches, chemistries, and wet lab experiments will be developed to understand and discover new and better ways of modeling and designing these systems. The findings will be used to create new or improved functionalities like accessing data from a repository, searching for specific data, and securing data. A team of researchers at NC State University in computer engineering and chemical and biomolecular engineering will bring their joint expertise to analyze, understand, and forge solutions that will enable DNA storage at larger scales.<br/><br/>Society faces a major challenge of securely, affordably, and sustainably preserving digital data. Current technologies are not scaling in size or cost quickly enough to keep up with the massive amounts of data being created. DNA has the potential to solve this problem due to its enormous density and longevity. The research findings from this project can help realize DNA as a storage technology by addressing critical barriers of scaling DNA and by unlocking innovative ways of organizing, accessing, searching, and securing data that’s stored in DNA. This project will also support the training of graduate students, produce online educational materials to help advance knowledge in this field, and create opportunities for under-served K-12 students to learn more about data storage through summer camps at NC State University.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
