DNA is emerging as a viable alternative for digital data storage due to its high density, stability, and long shelf life, enabling the storage of vast amounts of data in compact spaces. Current conventional storage methods face limitations such as environmental pollution, data loss, and capacity constraints, making DNA's unique properties advantageous for future data archival. While the cost and speed of DNA synthesis and sequencing currently pose challenges, the potential for long-term data retention positions DNA technology as a solution for the growing demands of data storage.

1. Digital Data Storage in DNA

2. INTRODUCTION
Human-beings have always been fond of accessing more and more information in minimum possible
time and space. Consequently New Generation Computers and High Speed Internet have gained
popularity in the recent years.
We have been witness to remarkable achievements like the transition from the bulky hard-drives to the
flash drives which has made personal data storage efficiently manageable.
But when it comes to handling big data, the data of a corporation or of the world as a whole, the present
data storage technology comes nowhere near to be able to manage it efficiently.
An urgent need for a proper medium for information archival and retrieval purposes arises.

4. What
can
be
done?
Stability: DNA is a very stable molecule, especially if it is stored in cold, dry, and dark
conditions. Woolly mammoth DNA has been found in colder regions that has been
preserved for thousands of years.
Density: One gram of DNA can store 700 terabytes of data. To store 700TB on hard
drives, you’d need 233 3TB drives, weighing a total of 151 kilos. It is theoretically possible
to "store at least 100 million hours of high-definition video in about a cup of DNA.“
Long Shelf Life: DNA is a very robust material and has a very long shelf life with no
attenuation in data.
Similar Coding Scheme: Coding language of nature is very similar to the binary
language we use in computers

5. What is DNA?
 DNA or DeoxyriboNucleic Acid is the hereditary material in
humans and almost all other organisms. Nearly every cell in
a person’s body has the same DNA.
 The information in DNA is stored as a code made up of four
chemical bases: Adenine, Guanine, Thymine, Cytosine.
 Human DNA consists of about 3 billion bases, and more
than 99 percent of these bases are the same in all people.
 The order , or sequence, of these bases determines the
information available for building and maintaining an
organism, similar the way in which letter of the alphabet
appear in a certain order to form words and sentences.

6. Structure of DNA

7. PROBLEMS WITH CONVENTIONAL STORAGE
DEVICES
• Silicon and the other non-biodegradable materials used in data
storage pollute the environment.
• The linear density of digital storage is 10kb per square mm.
• As the data increases, the current data storage technology would
not be enough to store data in future as data is growing every day.
Even potentially important information can get lost due to lack of
storage space.
• Poor handling of optical disk can cause data loss in them.
• Solid state drives have a limited number of write cycles.
• Without an internet connection, it is not possible to access the
data stored in the cloud.

9. DNA digital data Storage
 It refers to any process to store digital data in the base sequence of DNA.
 This technology uses artificial DNA made using commercially available oligonucleotide
synthesis machines for storage and DNA sequencing machines for retrieval.
 This type of storage system is more compact than current magnetic tape or hard drive storage
systems due to the data density of the DNA.
 Currently, in a 1 gram of DNA 215 petabytes (215 million gigabytes) could be stored.
 It also has the capability for longevity, as long as the DNA is held in cold, dry and dark
conditions.
 DNA is fundamental and universal data storage mechanism in biology.

11. In this encoding, Quaternary number system is used.
Thus, 2 bits are stored per nucleotide
 First we should use numbers to represent the letters
in ASCII code
From ASCII table
V=86 V=86 I=73 T=84
 Then change to quaternary numbers
86= 1112 86= 1112 73 = 1021 84 = 1110
 Use “A ,T, C & G” to represent the numbers
0 = A 1 = T 2 = C 3 = G
VVIT would be encoded as
1112111210211110
TTTCTTTCTACTTTTA

12.  Cost : The production costs of generating raw,
unassembled sequence (reading) data is high.
Synthesizing artificial sequences is costlier.
 Speed: Speed is low. The fastest current technology can
sequence (read) DNA on the order of about 1 billion
bases per hour. Synthesis (write) is even slower and
more expensive as well. This is extremely slow
compared to modern storage media but would be
suitable for long term data storage.
 Rewriting: This is essentially a write-once technology,
but static data like government and historical records
could benefit from this storage option.

13. Some facts on DNA

18. CONCLUSION
 Using DNA for data storage, it is possible to store huge amount of data in very
less size.
 As DNA can retain data for millions of years, it is possible to store data for a long
period of time.
 Instead of using conventional storage devices which have less capacity to store
data, DNA-based storage method be used in distant future to store data secured
manner and for long time storage and solve the problem of limited space.
 This technique maintains two copies of data. Hence, in case of data damage, its
copy can be used to read data.