Shelf life – 150 years
It's no secret that the DNA molecule can be used to store data. Just one gram of DNA can store hundreds of petabytes of data. And although these are purely theoretical calculations, the Biomemory company is already offering a finished product based on this method.
Biomemory presented a special card that is similar to a regular bank card. This format was chosen simply for convenience. In fact, the very DNA where the user's information will be stored is placed in a small metal capsule that is inserted into the card.
The capsule contains specially processed DNA strands of the bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli) — ordinary E. coli. And on such a medium it is proposed to save 1 KB of data encoded in the ACGT sequences (adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine) of DNA nucleic bases. The encoding density in this case is 1 bit per four nitrogenous bases.
Such a card is not a conventional analogue of a flash drive or floppy disk. The bottom line is that the information chosen by the client is encoded into DNA directly in the Eurofins Genomics laboratory in Germany. The company makes two cards with identical data at once and sends both to the client.
It is also impossible to read this data at home. The map again needs to be sent to the Eurofins Genomics laboratory, which in turn sends it to the Eurofins laboratory where the DNA sequencing takes place. In this case, the DNA is destroyed, so the data can only be read once. The client is sent only a sequence of letters, and he will be able to decode it at home, receiving his information.
Data storage period in this form — 150 years. Card cost — 1000 euros.
At the same time, Biomemory says that by 2026 it plans to develop a product called Biomemory Prime, capable of storing 100 PB. They plan to target it at data centers.