Enzymatic DNA synthesis sees the light (IMAGE)

Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard

Enzymatic DNA synthesis sees the light

Caption

This illustration shows how the Wyss' team encoded the first measures of the 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System video game Super Mario BrothersTM "Overworld Theme" (Input) in DNA and then decoded it again into a sound-bite (output). First, using a specially developed in silico approach they translated the input sheet notes into a ternary code of 2s, 1s, and 0s, which in turn was transformed into a set of distinct DNA sequences. With the help of their photolithographic enzymatic DNA synthesis method, the actual DNA sequences were written on a patterned array, and safely stored away. At a later time, the synthesized single-stranded DNA sequences could be decoded again by DNA sequencing and translated back into output sound.

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Wyss Institute at Harvard University

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