Scientists have found a way to store data in the DNA of living bacteria

Scientists from the National University of Singapore have developed a new technology for using DNA as an information storage device. They have named it “BacCam”, which means “biological camera”. The principle of operation is very similar to the work of a conventional camera, which transfers light onto film to create images.

DNA is like film that has not yet been developed, and optogenetics techniques are used to process it. Red and blue light lasers irradiate DNA to trigger gene expression reactions in a specific pattern. Using the barcoding method, tags are created that make up the code to record the information.

The procedure does not harm the original DNA as it is borrowed from the GMO bacterium. A machine-learning scanner is used for decoding. BacCam can handle multiple images at the same time. And it’s still cheaper and easier than synthesizing a DNA molecule with the right architecture from scratch, especially when it comes to the task of scaling the amount of information recorded. Perhaps this technology will be the basis for the creation of fundamentally new data carriers.

You may be interested: What is the temperature of Earth’s core?