Emerging Startup

Digital DNA Storage System

A startup emerging from George Church's lab intends to leverage new enzymatic approaches to develop a cost-effective digital DNA storage system. (Image credit: Shutterstock/Chornyi Serhii.)

The volume of global digital information is growing exponentially, but we face a challenge in that current silicon-based mechanisms of digital information storage are limited in density, durability, and protection against hackers. DNA has garnered considerable interest as a medium for digital information storage due to its superior density, stability, and offline security. Despite these promising advantages, however, DNA has not been adopted for widespread use due to the prohibitive cost of synthesis. George Church's lab has developed approaches for enzymatic DNA synthesis that reduce the cost by 8 orders of magnitude. Kern Systems, a startup emerging from the lab, intends to leverage these new enzymatic approaches to develop a cost-effective digital DNA storage system.