SBIR Phase I: Scalable DNA Archiving

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是开发一种环境温度核酸样本管理系统，该系统可以高效且经济地扩展，以满足生命科学和数据科学的需求。最近的市场趋势表明，DNA档案和获取需求显著扩大，应用于健康和祖先的个人基因组学服务；法医、精准医学、农业样本储存；以及未来使用DNA序列的数字信息存储。目前市场上可用的DNA储存方法依赖于房间大小的冷温储存，DNA通常保存在生物活性介质中，容易因冻融循环、电源故障、样品污染或样品丢失而降解。这项工作的目标是开发一种DNA样本管理方法，该方法允许环境样本存储与快速访问相结合，具有天然的化学和热保护。这项工作将导致一种基于设备的样品管理方法，该方法将随着工业需求的增长而扩展。该SBIR一期项目建议开发可扩展的基于珠状封装DNA样品的技术和工程要求，可获得分子生物学级纯度，用于下游克隆和测序。微米级DNA样本的存档和访问将通过两阶段的方法来完成，以保护和条形码单个样本。将开发新的工艺和协议，以精确可靠地将DNA封装在10微米的凝聚颗粒中，另外还允许条形码识别。将专门开发方法，以便从颗粒中提取样品将是非破坏性的，并且对下游应用具有高质量。随机访问将通过富集那些显示感兴趣的条形码的粒子来实现。这项研究将为档案带来革命性的微米级DNA管理架构，提供巨大的容量改进，降低运营成本，提高样本完整性。具体的技术创新包括用于长期DNA存档的DNA封装方法和用于检索的微粒分子条形码。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is the development of an ambient-temperature nucleic acid sample management system that can efficiently and cost-effectively scale to meet the demands of life science and data science needs. Recent market trends show a significant expansion in DNA archival and access requirements, with applications in personal genomics services for health and ancestry; forensic, precision medicine, and agricultural sample storage; and future digital information storage using DNA sequences. Current market-available DNA storage methods rely on cold-temperature storage in room-size chambers, with the DNA typically kept in biologically active media that is prone to degradation by freeze-thaw cycling, power failure, sample contamination, or sample loss. The goal of this work is to develop a method of DNA sample management that allows ambient sample storage combined with rapid access with native chemical and thermal protection. This work will lead to a device-based approach for sample management that will scale with the growing demands of industry.This SBIR Phase I project proposes to develop technological and engineering requirements for scalable bead-based encapsulation of DNA samples, retrievable with molecular-biology grade purity for downstream cloning and sequencing. Micron-scale DNA sample archival and access will be accomplished by a two-stage method for protecting and barcoding individual samples. New processes and protocols will be developed for the precise and reliable encapsulation of DNA in 10 micrometer condensed particles that additionally allow for barcode identification. Methods will be specifically developed such that the retrieval of the sample out of the particle will be nondestructive and of high quality for downstream applications. Random access will be achieved by enrichment of those particles displaying the barcode of interest. This research will lead to a revolutionary micron-scale DNA management architecture for archival, offering massive improvement in capacity, decreased operating costs and increased sample integrity. Specific technical innovations include DNA encapsulation methods for long-term DNA archival and molecular barcoding of microparticles for retrieval.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.