Chinese scientists make breakthroughs in DNA-based medical data storage

Moscow, October 2, 2024 (FBC) – Scientists from Tianjin University have made a breakthrough in DNA-based data storage. They have developed a new DNA palette encoding method that can successfully encode brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data into DNA and decode it losslessly. This is reported by CGTN, a partner of TV BRICS.

This breakthrough paves the way for the development of advanced medical data storage technologies, which are particularly important for the long-term storage of data on chronic diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and neurogenetic disorders.

Until now, existing storage media have been unable to cope with the demand for large-scale, long-term data storage.

The researchers successfully encoded 11.28 megabytes of brain MRI data into approximately 250,000 DNA sequences, achieving an impressive data density of 2.39 bits per base.

The encoded oligonucleotides are stored as a dry powder, weigh just 3 microgrammes, and can withstand more than 300 reads.

This research marks an important step towards the practical application of DNA-based data storage and could change the way medical information is stored in the future.