Scientists at Harvard University with genetics manager Jordan Church made a breakthrough in trying to store information by embedding a GIF image into natural DNA. For their purpose, they use CRISPR's genetic information editing technology to incorporate the little animated image into the genome of the live bacterium Escherichia coli. They have succeeded in integrating the individual pixels of each mini-image in the nucleotides, building blocks of DNA.
The scientists have been able to deliver the image in five separate frames: images of a galloping horse and his rider, photographed by the English photographer who was working at the end of the 19th century and is known to present the first stop-motion images. After this action, scientists have been able to retrieve the bacterial DNA data through a sequence. Experts recovered the short movie with 90% accuracy by reading the pixelized nucleotide code.
The experience is documented in the journal Nature and is believed to be done with bacterial DNA only, but according to Professor of Computer Science and Biology at Columbia University, Yaniv Erlich, quoted by Business Insider, this is a revolutionary effort to store information, to lead one day and to successful experiments with human cells.
The media recalls that hitherto successful attempts to harbor DNA data have only been with synthetic DNA that has been artificially created. But embedding the miniature image (of only 36 × 26 pixels) in living DNA is a significant achievement because, unlike the artificial, dead cell, living cells constantly change their position, divide or die.
The Church team has ambitious plans for the time after their breakthrough. Seth Shipman, who runs the study, says he would like to create "live sensors" to record what's happening in the cell or in the environment around it. Shipman goes further, commenting that one day it will be possible to place wherever you want such "bacterial hard drives," to record the information you need, then to harvest the bacteria and analyze the information gathered from the DNA.
