Jurassic Park’s amber-preserved dino DNA is now inspiring a way to store data
The storage density of DNA far surpasses that of any human-made device. For instance, encoding every movie ever made in DNA would occupy a volume no larger than a sugar cube. However, DNA is fragile and requires meticulous handling and storage. Existing methods demand freezing temperatures, specialized equipment, or hazardous chemicals such as hydrofluoric acid. Attempts to store DNA at room temperature in materials like silica have been unsuccessful.
Banal and colleagues have developed a new method called Thermoset-REinforced Xeropreservation (T-REX), which encapsulates DNA in glassy polymer networks at room temperature. By utilizing lock-and-key chemicals that can "open up" the polymer's structure, they can easily retrieve the DNA. This material, similar to polystyrene plastic, was chosen for its durability. To ensure easy deconstruction, the team introduced a chemical weakness using a molecule called thionolactone. “That allows us to deconstruct the polymer to get the information back,” Banal explains.
To test the polymer's resilience, the researchers encapsulated DNA strands containing the encoded Jurassic Park theme music and a complete human genome in the amber-like material. They then exposed it to temperatures of 55°C, 65°C, and 75°C at 70% humidity for seven days. The DNA was extracted using benign reagents instead of hydrofluoric acid and retrieved using DNA-reading techniques within hours, unlike the days required for silica-based methods.
Remarkably, the extracted DNA can be re-encapsulated using the same material, creating “a circular kind of chemistry that is actually very beautiful,” according to Banal.
Dina Zielinski, a computational biologist at Whitelab Genomics in Paris, notes that the T-REX method seems more efficient than existing room-temperature DNA storage techniques. “Even though the improvements might seem incremental compared to silica methods, they bring us closer to practically being able to store nucleic acid for hundreds, even thousands, of years at room temperature, which has broad-reaching impacts.”
Banal and his team are working to simplify the method for field use, potentially enabling the collection and preservation of genetic data or other specimens, like seeds or proteins, in remote locations, or even for transporting biological molecules for space research.
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