Project description
Introducing a DNA data storage solution
Thanks to IoT, computing and communications technologies play an ever-increasing role in our lives, but we are producing massive amounts of data that could soon be too much for our storage supply. With 175 zettabytes of data predicted to be produced by 2025 and only 20 % of it able to be in storage, lack of space poses a serious risk to digital infostructure and safety. Furthermore, with current storage data centres being major contributors of CO2, there is an urgent need for alternative storage solutions. The EU-funded DATANA project aims to fill this need by introducing a patented solution that would allow for the use of DNA as efficient, sustainable and abundant storage space.
Objective
BioSistemika is developing a DNA data writing technology, which is addressing the growing global problem of insufficient storage supply of the escalating world’s production of digital data. By 2025, the worldwide production of data will grow to 175 zettabytes, which is 10 times the amount of data humanity produced in 2017. The gap is rapidly widening and we will not be able to store more than 20% of produced data by 2025, a scenario which poses a serious risk to our entire digital ecosystems and digital safety. Today, digital data is predominantly stored in large datacentres that are a major contributor of CO2 emissions and a growing environmental concern. This even further promotes the urgent need of our society to shift the paradigm towards more sustainable storage technologies.
DATANA is a patented innovation that enables this shift by utilizing DNA as an abundant, sustainable, and stable solution for the storage of data. As such, DNA has a lifespan of 1000+ years and the capacity to hold 20-million times more data per gram of substance than any other existing storage technology. Due to the high costs of DNA synthesis, the utilization of DNA for data storage is today still too expensive and time consuming to be used commercially. DATANA solves this issue by using a patented data encoding algorithm and a proprietary liquid handling system that reduces the volumes of DNA synthesis to picolitre range (one billionth of a milliliter). By doing so, it enables economically viable DNA storage of data for the first time. This represents a remarkable breakthrough and a major stepping stone for humanity, as it enables us to encode data into DNA at a cost comparable to the storage media used today.
The project goal is to further optimize and scale-up our technology, which will allow for the demonstration of its potential at a commercially relevant scale and enable commercialization on the global data storage market by 2023.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-2b - SME Instrument (grant only and blended finance)Coordinator
1000 Ljubljana
Slovenia
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.