Automated Routing of Droplets for DNA Storage on a Digital Microfluidics Platform
Abstract
Technologies for sequencing (reading) and synthesizing (writing) DNA have progressed on a Moore's law-like trajectory over the last three decades. This has motivated the idea of using DNA for data storage. Theoretically, DNA-based storage systems could out-compete all existing forms of archival storage. However, a large gap exists between what is theoretically possible in terms of read and write speeds and what has been practically demonstrated with DNA. This paper introduces a novel approach to DNA storage, with automated assembly on a digital microfluidic biochip. This technology offers unprecedented parallelism in DNA assembly using a dual library of "symbols" and "linkers". An algorithmic solution is discussed for the problem of managing droplet traffic on the device, with prioritized three-dimensional "A*" routing. An overview is given of the software that was developed for routing a large number of droplets in parallel on the device, minimizing congestion and maximizing throughput.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2211.15494,
title = {Automated Routing of Droplets for DNA Storage on a Digital Microfluidics Platform},
author = {Ajay Manicka and Andrew Stephan and Sriram Chari and Gemma Mendonsa and Peyton Okubo and John Stolzberg-Schray and Anil Reddy and Marc Riedel},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2211.15494},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
15 pages, 23 figures. Submitted to the journal "Lab on a Chip" for publication by the Royal Society of Chemistry