Storing Data over Millennia. Long term Room Temperature Storage of DNA.

The most expensive factor in traditional archival storage is that it is not durable and, thus, over the years, it is necessary to do many migrations due to degradation and technology obsolescence. DNA reading technology, due to the immutable format of the DNA molecule, will not be obsolete, mitigating this obsolescence. However low cost DNA storage does come with some imperatives. Indeed DNA outside the cell, as with any biological molecule, will be subject to aggressive degradation factors, the main one being water. Even dehydrated, degradation due to water cannot be completely avoided because no plastic container is watertight. Imagene developed and industrialized a process allowing to keep, at room temperature, dehydrated DNA under an inert atmosphere in a hermetic stainless steel capsule. This standalone storage system allows to store and retrieve digital data coded in DNA for millennia.

• Explain the mechanisms affecting the stability of molecular DNA
• Explain the requirements of DNA preservation in the context of using DNA as a data storage medium
• Describe a working room temperature DNA data storage solution and industrial process as developed by Imagene