SynDNAStore. Synthetic biology innovation around the design of DNA molecules for digital archiving

存储在数字媒体中的信息量越来越大；电影、电视节目、图片、mp3、pdf等。事实上，相当多的信息是“天生的数字”，因为它们一开始就在数字媒体（例如数码相机）中产生。尽管每天都在使用数字存储方法来存储这些信息，但要长时间（即几十年）存储数字信息要复杂得多。目前的最佳做法是将信息存储在磁带上，并定期在磁带技术的升级之间进行转换，周期为5至10年。储存世代相传信息的化学物质DNA是一种天然的数字存储方案；它有四个可能的“字母”（A， T， G和C）。由于过去四十年来的广泛研究，我们可以很容易地读取、剪切、复制和拼接DNA。最近，将DNA写入您选择的设计也变得可行。之前我们展示了我们可以将DNA用于与存储遗传信息截然不同的目的，即存储任何数字信息。在我们的第一次试验中，我们存储了莎士比亚所有的十四行诗，马丁·路德·金“我有一个梦想”演讲的MP3摘录，EBI大楼的JPG图片，以及沃森和克里克1953年在《自然》杂志上发表的PDF文件。我们可以确信，这些信息可以保存1000多年。在这个提议中，我们想扩展这项工作，利用人们可以准确而廉价地复制DNA信息的事实。要做到这一点，我们需要更精确地了解DNA酶的工程特性——它们对每个序列都起作用吗？它们的精确错误率是多少？利用这些信息，我们将能够设计一个数字DNA存储，可以复制100次或1000次很容易。作为概念的证明，我们还希望在DNA中存储更大量的文化重要信息——例如，莎士比亚的全部作品，或联合国人权宣言。有了这项新工作，以及合成技术的预期进展，我们希望能够储存大量的蛋白质。为了选择我们存储的精确作品，我们将与公众接触，并设计合适的物理存储位置。

There is an increasing amount of information stored in digital media; films, TV programs, pictures, mp3s, PDFs and others. Indeed, a considerable amount of information is "born digital" in that it was generated at the outset in a digital media (for example, digital cameras). Despite the every day use of digital storage methods for this information, it is far more complex to store digital information over a long period of time, ie, over decades. Current best practice involves storing information on magnetic tape, and regularly transitioning between upgrades of the tape technology, between 5 to 10 years. DNA, the chemical which stores the information passed on between generations is a naturally digital storage scheme; it has four possible "letters" (A, T, G and C). Because of the extensive research that has occurred over the last forty years, we can easily read, cut, copy and splice DNA together. More recently it has become feasible to also write DNA to a design of your choosing. Previously we showed that we could use DNA for a very different purpose than store genetic information, namely to store any digital information. In our first trial we stored all of Shakespeare's sonnets, a MP3 extract of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, a JPG of a picture of the EBI Building, and the PDF of the Watson and Crick publication in Nature in 1953. We can be confident that this information can survive for over 1,000 years.In this proposal we want to expand on this work to exploit the fact that one can copy accurately and cheaply DNA information. To do this we need to know at far better precision the engineering properties of DNA enzymes - do they work evenly on every sequence? What is their precise error rate? Using this information we will be able to design a Digital DNA store which can be replicated 100s or 1000s of times easily. As a proof of concept we would also like to store a more substantial amount of culturally important information in DNA - for example, the entire works of Shakespeare, or the UN declaration of human rights. With this new work, and with the expected advances in synthesis we expect to be able to store a substantial amount. To choose the precise works we store we will engage with the public, and also design an appropriate physical storage location.