Using DNA as a rewritable storage medium

Talking Points Memo : Researchers at Stanford University in California have found a way to store data in the DNA of living cells. Employing a technique they call recombinase addressable data (RAD), Drew Endy and coworkers used two types of enzymes, integrase and excisionase, to manipulate the direction of the molecular building blocks that make up the DNA of Escherichia coli bacteria. By flipping each component in one of two directions, they mimicked the 0’s and 1’s of binary code. As a visual demonstration, the researchers programmed the cells to glow either red or green under ultraviolet light and arranged them to spell out words in petri dishes. RAD could be “an incredibly powerful tool for studying cancer, aging, organismal development and even the natural environment,” said Endy in a Stanford press release . The group published its results this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.