SBIR Phase I: Scalable DNA Archiving

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种环境温度核酸样本管理系统，该系统可以有效且具有成本效益地扩展，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存档和访问需求显着扩大，应用于健康和祖先的个人基因组学服务;法医，精密医学和农业样品存储;以及使用DNA序列的未来数字信息存储。目前市场上可获得的DNA储存方法依赖于在房间大小的室中的低温储存，其中DNA通常保存在生物活性介质中，所述生物活性介质易于因冻融循环、电源故障、样品污染或样品损失而降解。这项工作的目标是开发一种DNA样品管理方法，该方法允许环境样品存储与快速访问结合，并具有天然化学和热保护。这项工作将导致一个基于设备的方法来进行样品管理，将规模与不断增长的需求industry.This SBIR第一阶段项目提出开发技术和工程要求的可扩展的珠为基础的封装DNA样品，可检索的分子生物学级纯度的下游克隆和测序。大规模DNA样本的存档和访问将通过两阶段方法来完成，用于保护和条形码化单个样本。将开发新的工艺和方案，用于将DNA精确可靠地封装在10微米的浓缩颗粒中，另外还允许条形码识别。将专门开发方法，以便从颗粒中取出样品将是非破坏性的，并且对于下游应用具有高质量。随机访问将通过富集显示感兴趣条形码的那些颗粒来实现。这项研究将导致一个革命性的微米级DNA管理架构的存档，提供大规模的能力，降低运营成本和提高样品的完整性。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的分子条形码。该奖项反映了NSF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.