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Genomic Encryption of Digital Data Stored in Synthetic DNA

Grass, RN; Heckel, R; Dessimoz, C; Stark, WJ; (2020) Genomic Encryption of Digital Data Stored in Synthetic DNA. Angewandte Chemie: International Edition , 59 (22) pp. 8476-8480. 10.1002/anie.202001162. Green open access

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Abstract

Today, we can read human genomes and store digital data robustly in synthetic DNA. Herein, we report a strategy to intertwine these two technologies to enable the secure storage of valuable information in synthetic DNA, protected with personalized keys. We show that genetic short tandem repeats (STRs) contain sufficient entropy to generate strong encryption keys, and that only one technology, DNA sequencing, is required to simultaneously read the key and the data. Using this approach, we experimentally generated 80 bit strong keys from human DNA, and used such a key to encrypt 17 kB of digital information stored in synthetic DNA. Finally, the decrypted information was recovered perfectly from a single massively parallel sequencing run.

Type: Article
Title: Genomic Encryption of Digital Data Stored in Synthetic DNA
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1002/anie.202001162
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202001162
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: biometrics, DNA encryption, genomic DNA, next-generation sequencing, synthetic DNA
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Genetics, Evolution and Environment
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10097108
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