TY - JOUR T1 - Random access DNA memory in a scalable, archival file storage system JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/2020.02.05.936369 SP - 2020.02.05.936369 AU - James L. Banal AU - Tyson R. Shepherd AU - Joseph Berleant AU - Hellen Huang AU - Miguel Reyes AU - Cheri M. Ackerman AU - Paul C. Blainey AU - Mark Bathe Y1 - 2021/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/02/22/2020.02.05.936369.abstract N2 - DNA is an ultra-high-density storage medium that could meet exponentially growing worldwide demand for archival data storage if DNA synthesis costs declined sufficiently and random access of files within exabyte-to-yottabyte-scale DNA data pools were feasible. To overcome the second barrier, here we encapsulate data-encoding DNA file sequences within impervious silica capsules that are surface-labeled with single-stranded DNA barcodes. Barcodes are chosen to represent file metadata, enabling efficient and direct selection of sets of files with Boolean logic. We demonstrate random access of image files from an image database using fluorescence sorting with selection sensitivity of 1 in 106 files, which thereby enables 1 in 106N per N optical channels. Our strategy thereby offers retrieval of random file subsets from exabyte and larger-scale long-term DNA file storage databases, offering a scalable solution for random-access of archival files in massive molecular datasets.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest. ER -