Catalog Technologies Inc., a Boston-based startup looking to use synthetic DNA to store digital data, has closed a $35 million funding round to support its research efforts. 

The funding, led by Hanwha Impact and announced today, will go toward improving the capabilities of Catalog’s DNA-based data storage platform. The startup is hoping to make the platform ready for commercial use in 2025. Along the way, Catalog also intends to upgrade the system to let it not only store information but also run computations.

There are many ways to store digital information. A flash drive stores data by encoding it into the physical state of its transistors: A transistor represents 1 when it’s switched on and 0 when it’s switched off. Hard drives represent data in the magnetic fields of metal platters. Some quantum computers, in turn, encode data into ions by manipulating their spin.

DNA-based storage systems like the one Catalog has built use synthetic DNA produced in a lab to store data. The data is represented not with a transistor or an ion’s spin but rather in nucleotides, the organic molecules that form the basic building blocks of DNA. All DNA is made up of four types of nucleotides known as C, G, A and T.

DNA-based storage technology could make it possible to store digital data using a small fraction of the equipment, space and electricity that current hardware requires. According to Catalog, hard drives make it possible to store about 30 million gigabytes of information per cubic meter. The startup says its DNA-based system could in theory store 600 billion gigabytes per cubic meter.

The key to the efficiency of DNA-based storage is that nucleotides, the basic building blocks of DNA, are far smaller than the transistors and metal platters used by today’s flash and storage drives, respectively, to store information. That makes it possible to store more data in less space. Moreover, DNA-based storage systems could in theory require less electricity and prove more durable than current technology. 

In DNA, nucleotides are grouped into so-called base pairs consisting of two nucleotides linked together by hydrogen bonds. Catalog’s DNA-based storage system reportedly uses 25 to 30 base pairs, arranged in 114 specific combinations, to store information. Data is inputted and outputted through chemical reactions.

The startup says that its system can write data to storage at speeds of over 10 megabits per second when running at full capacity. The system can store away as much as 1.63 terabytes of information in a single run, according to Catalog. The startup is working on technology that will also enable future versions of its systems to also carry out computations.

DNA-based computing is an emerging technology that seeks to harness DNA to run algorithms on data. The first proof-of-concept implementation of the technology was demonstrated in 1994. In that project, a DNA-based system was successfully used to perform a calculation related to the mathematical field known as graph theory.

Catalog believes its technology could be useful for tasks such as fraud detection and monitoring the reliability of production lines. Moreover, the startup expects the technology will one day be capable of supporting artificial intelligence applications.

Catalog, founded in 2016 by two MIT scientists, has raised about $60 million to date including the new funding round announced today.

Photo: Catalog