Duration: 54:48

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Sustaining growth in storage and computational needs is increasingly challenging. For over a decade, exponentially more information has been produced year after year while data storage solutions are pressed to keep up. Soon, current solutions will be unable to match new information in need of storage. Computing is on a similar trajectory, with new needs emerging in search and other domains that require more efficient systems. Innovative methods are necessary to ensure the ability to address future demands, and DNA provides an opportunity at the molecular level for ultra-dense, durable, and sustainable solutions in these areas.

In this webinar, join Microsoft researcher Karin Strauss in exploring the role of biotechnology and synthetic DNA in reaching this goal. Although we have yet to achieve scalable, general-purpose molecular computation, there are areas of IT in which a molecular approach shows growing promise. These areas include storage as well as computation.

Learn how molecules, specifically synthetic DNA, can store digital data and perform certain types of special-purpose computation, like large-scale similarity search, by leveraging tools already developed by the biotechnology industry. Starting with some background on DNA and its storage potential, you’ll explore the advantages of using DNA for this application. Then, you’ll get a closer look at an end-to-end system, including encoding, synthesizing, reading, and decoding DNA. We’ll also look at an affordable full-stack digital microfluidics platform for wet lab preparations and conclude with a discussion of future hybrid systems.

Together, you’ll explore:

■ The intersection between technology and science of DNA data storage and computation
■ The many advantages for using DNA to store data compared with other methods
■ A detailed walkthrough of an end-to-end DNA storage system and its stages
■ How DNA can be used for image similarity search

𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁:

■ DNA Storage (project page): https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/dna-storage
■ DNA Storage publication library: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/dna-storage/#!publications
■ Storing digital data in synthetic DNA with Dr. Karin Strauss (podcast): https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/podcast/storing-digital-data-in-synthetic-dna-with-dr-karin-strauss
■ Molecular Digital Data Storage using DNA (publication): https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/molecular-digital-data-storage-using-dna
■ A Content-Addressable DNA Database with Learned Sequence Encodings (publication): https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/a-content-addressable-dna-database-with-learned-sequence-encodings
■ Microsoft and UW demonstrate first fully automated DNA data storage (blog): https://news.microsoft.com/innovation-stories/hello-data-dna-storage
■ Molecular Information Systems Lab: https://misl.cs.washington.edu
■ Art and DNA Data Storage (University of Washington blog): https://news.cs.washington.edu/2020/02/24/memoriesindna-portrait-project-blends-dna-technology-and-art-to-memorialize-pioneering-scientist-rosalind-franklin
■ Karin Strauss (profile page): https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/kstrauss

*This on-demand webinar features a previously recorded Q&A session and open captioning.

This webinar originally aired on September 17, 2020

Explore more Microsoft Research webinars: https://aka.ms/msrwebinars