Learning Center Daniella Bar-Lev, Omer Sabary, and Eitan Yaakobi
Tutorial @ IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory 2023, Taipei, Taiwan.
In the last decade, several studies have shown that DNA-based storage systems can potentially become the standard for data archival systems due to their high data density and durability. Given current developments and trends in DNA synthesis (writing) and DNA sequencing (reading), it is estimated that in the very near future, DNA-based storage systems will become a highly competitive archiving technology [Tansey 2023]. However, there is still a lack of coding solutions to tackle the special nature of errors in DNA-based storage systems [Markowitz 2023]. The synthesis and sequencing technologies come with increased error-rates, which cannot be corrected by classical coding solutions that are used in contemporary storage media. This is because the storage architecture and typical errors in DNA-based storage systems, which includes insertion and deletion (indel) errors, are fundamentally different than their digital counterparts. Overcoming these obstacles requires new solutions that will address the special nature of errors in DNA and the unique architecture of such storage systems.This tutorial will provide a comprehensive understanding of DNA storage systems through three parts. First, we will introduce the basic concepts of DNA storage systems and provide an overview of today’s technologies and market landscape. In the second part, we will delve deeper into the computational components of the system and explore their related theoretical problems. This part will highlight state-of-the-art results and differences between various proposed solutions. Lastly, we will discuss DNA storage in practice and present specific sequencing and synthesis technologies of interest, algorithms and coding solutions used in previous DNA storage systems, and the challenges that still need to be addressed. By the end of the tutorial, our goal is to give the audience a better understanding of the limitations and potential of DNA storage systems and the current research directions in the field.
