During this project, we prepared a feasibility study to determine whether DNA data storage technology is technologically feasible and whether there is a market opportunity for a new technology that cannot yet compete price-wise with the existing data storage technologies. Writing 1 gigabyte of data to DNA on a laboratory scale costs more than 16 million EUR and the archive would consist of more than 13 000 litres of liquid. Because of this, we would need to scale down the reaction at least million-times to achieve a practical and economical solution. Our DNA writing technology is based on Polymerase chain reaction assembly (PCA), therefore we first searched the literature for previous reports on low-volume PCA reactions. According to the literature, nanoliter scale PCA is possible, and picoliter scale PCA is feasible. Further, we investigated the liquid handling technologies that could be used to work with such minute volumes. The best characteristics showed InkJet technology, which can handle volumes below 2 picolitres and perform more than 100 000 liquid handling operations per second. This would allow for good price-performance and adequate writing speeds. In the next step, we looked at the economical feasibility of DNA data storage. Just by proper sourcing of materials and working in the ~100 picolitre range, the technology can compete price-wise with magnetic tapes. The economy of scale and further improvements in the technology can drive this price much below magnetic tape storage techniques. Our results demonstrate that DNA data storage is technologically and economically feasible.
The final part of the study focused on commercialization strategy and business plan, where we researched the data archiving market as well as the life science liquid handling market and determined the place of our DNA data storage technology in it. The life sciences market, such as DNA sequencing and nanoparticle synthesis, could make use of our novel liquid handling technology, which would allow an immediate market entry and revenue of ~13.3 million EUR, assuming 0.01% market share in several relevant markets. We estimate that the data archiving market, on the other hand, will likely be ready for DNA data storage technology in 5-10 years, therefore concrete revenue and profit projections are difficult to predict at this point.
Lastly, we performed a set of interviews with entrepreneurs and investors to determine the best commercialization strategy for a high-tech invention. We concluded that BioSistemika will likely form a spin-off company to transfer the invention into a new business entity. To bring the technology to the market we will look for public funding and private investments.
