Living Memory: DNA-Based Digital Storage (In Silico)

A project for How to Grow (Almost) Anything by Aryan Choudhary

🔗 Live Demo

Overview

This project explores the possibility of using synthetic DNA as a medium for digital data storage. Inspired by the growing limitations of silicon-based memory systems, Living Memory presents a fully in silico pipeline that compresses, encrypts, error-corrects, and encodes binary data into DNA sequences — ready for synthesis, archival, or future biological integration.

Problem

Modern data storage:

• Is energy-intensive
• Has limited durability
• Is not scalable for centuries-long archival needs

We need alternatives that are denser, more durable, and biologically integratable.

Our Vision

What if digital memories could be stored in living systems?

This project proposes a shift from silicon to DNA — a molecule evolved by nature to store and transmit massive amounts of information reliably across generations.

System Architecture

Processing Pipeline

1. Compression (Huffman Coding)

   Reduces redundancy, making storage more efficient

2. Encryption (AES-CBC)

   Secures data using a password-derived key