

DNA used as rewritable data storage in cells - plessthanpt05
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/340900/title/DNA_used_as_rewritable_data_storage_in_cells

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jes5199
is there any evidence or possibility that this is actually done in biology
already? If DNA is writable, then cells have a Von Neumann architecture!

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mbreese
This is somewhat like the way antibodies are formed. There are genetic changes
(recombination) at the DNA level in the antibody hyper-variable regions. This
is how we produce antibodies for everything based on a single gene (somewhat).

However, antibody VDJ recombination is more akin to write-only memory. Once it
is produced, it doesn't change.

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dlitz
So, if I understand this correctly, it's like Johnny Mnemonic, but you don't
have to store the data only in your brain. I bet if you used your entire skin
instead of just your brain, you could store a whopping 500 gigabytes!

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jnsaff2
Joe Davis has been encoding data into DNA for some time.

[http://www.viewingspace.com/genetics_culture/pages_genetics_...](http://www.viewingspace.com/genetics_culture/pages_genetics_culture/gc_w03/davis_j_ars_elec.htm)
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Davis_(artist)>

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christianbryant
I wonder what the equivalent of "rm -rf /" is in that environment? :)

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kijin
Probably <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apoptosis>

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andrewflnr
That's more like taking a hammer to your hard disk. What we want is more of a
virus that rewrites your genome with a single base.

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elmindreda
Obligatory Dresden Codak link: <http://dresdencodak.com/2009/07/12/fabulous-
prizes/>

