Prof Damien Woods. Image: Maynooth University
A team at the university’s Hamilton Institute will investigate how computers of the future could run on DNA.
Prof Damien Woods and his team at Maynooth University have been awarded €4m in funding under the European Innovation Council Pathfinder Challenge programme.
The team is working on a computing and information storage system based on artificially synthesised DNA and said this could reduce the current high energy demands of digital storage across the world.
“Each of the cells in your body has more than a gigabyte worth of DNA in it. By taking inspiration from biology and storing data in DNA we might use less space and energy than currently needed to store digital data, freeing up valuable resources,” said Woods.
“This nanoscale storage capacity could one day be used for chemical computers that retain and interact with large amounts of data in microscopic amounts of space.”
The fresh EU funding will build on the work already achieved by the team at Maynooth’s Hamilton Institute to enable DNA to store data, then read, write and carry out computations.
DNA forms a winding double helix consisting of two long DNA strands bound together. However, Woods and his team plan to design short DNA strands that interact with a single long DNA strand to encode both data and programs in DNA.
To carry out a DNA computation, the team will mix carefully designed synthetic DNA strands that code for specific data and algorithms together into a test tube. The results of computations can be read out using a light-based detection method, or even by using a special microscope to see a folded nanoscale structure.
This molecular ‘library’ will include DNA-based algorithms, that can be triggered to modify data stored in DNA, so that the nanoscale DNA-based computers will have a memory bank as well as the ability to carry out future computations.
“DNA in a droplet of liquid can run precise computations. The advantage of this technology compared to digital laptops is that one day we might have a huge amount of data stored in DNA, potentially in much smaller spaces than current technology,” said Woods.
“By running computations directly on DNA in the droplet, there is no need to use a laptop and expensive lab equipment to read the data. This has the potential to save on energy costs, but perhaps, more importantly opens up new forms of algorithmic molecular control at the nanoscale.”
The Maynooth team was the only Irish-led group to receive the European Innovation Council Pathfinder Challenge grant in the 2023 funding round. Woods also previously won a European Research Council grant as well as Science Foundation Ireland funding to develop DNA-based computers.
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