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Many moons in the past, famed enterprise capitalist Marc Andreessen described the time period “product-market match” as “being in a great market with a product that may fulfill that market.” To show that you’ve got product-market match, simply promote a significant quantity of your product and repair to finish clients – no subsidies, no free trials counted as revenues, no grants, and no associated celebration revenues. Each time an thrilling new expertise guarantees the moon, we all the time need to see product-market match earlier than investing. We don’t spend money on tales, we spend money on traction. That’s why when Twist Biosciences (TWST) guarantees their buyers that DNA knowledge storage is across the nook, we needed to take a more in-depth have a look at the thesis.
DNA Information Storage Defined
All knowledge is made up of 1s and 0s. All DNA is made up of As, Ts, Cs, and Gs. Put that method, it could make sense that if the 1s and 0s will be transformed to ATCGs, then knowledge could possibly be saved on strands of DNA. So, is it potential? Sure. Nevertheless, it’s not precisely that easy.
To retailer knowledge on DNA, the specified data first must be mapped onto the 4 nucleotides (the As, Ts, Cs, and Gs) of DNA. That is achieved utilizing a DNA synthesizer. Whereas this synthesizer may not assist Paul McCartney create a pop Christmas hit, it’s solely important to the info conversion course of. Its main goal is to affix nucleotides in a particular order to construct DNA molecules. In brief, it creates a “synthesized” strand of DNA. The nucleotides are chemically modified to permit them to suit snugly and simply onto the DNA chain. As soon as that is full, the DNA will be “purified” (separated from different mobile parts) making it prepared for knowledge storage. That is the place corporations like Twist Bioscience slot in. Twist specializes within the DNA synthesis course of, serving to to make DNA storage a actuality.
Some Key Opponents
Whereas a number of corporations are actively making strides within the DNA knowledge space for storing, Twist Bioscience boasts the power to retailer as much as 215 petabytes of information in a single gram of DNA. For perspective, a single petabyte may retailer over 13 years of HD video footage. This implies Twist may retailer 28 centuries of HD video in a single gram of DNA. The newest from the corporate is that they’re engaged on a Proof of Concept (POC) ship and a tool that enables knowledge to be written to DNA.
Early entry is predicted to occur earlier than the tip of this yr, although it’s unclear how mature the product providing will probably be by then.
Based in 2016, Catalog Applied sciences boasts buyers equivalent to Baidu, a Chinese language expertise conglomerate, and Horizons Ventures, a Hong Kong-based VC agency specializing in disruptive expertise startups. Catalog secured $35 million in Sequence B funding in late 2021, bringing their whole funding to $55 million. Whereas their platform “solely” has the capability to retailer one terabyte (1,000 gigabytes) of information per gram of DNA, Catalog’s benefit is that they’ve constructed a extremely scalable and safe platform for knowledge storage. Primarily, they’re taking a unique strategy in specializing in practicality versus capability. They haven’t introduced a timeline for industrial availability of their DNA knowledge storage providing and their web site doesn’t provide an excessive amount of confidence, claiming “the thought of storing data utilizing DNA has been round for some time. It’s simply that the price of DNA synthesis has been a bottle neck.”
Shocked to see this one on the record? We’re too. Nonetheless, Microsoft can also be on the forefront of the DNA knowledge storage trade, with a objective of creating it extra sensible and accessible for a variety of customers and purposes. Their most important contribution to the sector is the event of a totally automated system for DNA synthesis and coding, in partnership with Twist and Illumina amongst others. Dubbed the DNA Synthesis Platform (no creativity factors right here), it will possibly encode giant quantities of information in a single run. Microsoft can also be creating a specialised algorithm for encoding and decoding DNA knowledge, which follows a linear course of detailed beneath.
Whereas these corporations speak about progress being made in direction of commercialization, one firm claims to have already achieved commercialization.
In April of final yr, world biotechnology group GenScript (1548.HK) introduced the “first industrial platform for DNA digital knowledge storage” which was validated by researchers who encoded “100 Mb of blended knowledge sorts within the DNA to check the Excessive-Density DNA Synthesis Chip’s storage utility and retrieved 100% of the encoded knowledge with no loss.” The press launch asserting the product providing mentioned that it could be “absolutely commercially accessible within the second half of 2022” and that they’re “actively in search of members for a partnership program to broaden the applicability of the info storage platform.” No point out was manufactured from whether or not this resolution can compete on value. If it will possibly’t, then it’s arduous to see why anybody would need to interact with their partnership program.
Competing on Value
DNA knowledge storage isn’t addressing a blue ocean total addressable market (TAM). It must displace current options, particularly magnetic tape storage, which is without doubt one of the oldest applied sciences accessible for digital knowledge storage. Whereas different storage applied sciences like solid-state drives have gotten standard for main storage and knowledge processing, many organizations proceed to make use of tape storage merchandise as half of a bigger knowledge administration technique.
Magnetic tapes have been offering a high-capacity, low-cost resolution for archival knowledge storage since computer systems have been first invented. The primary magnetic tape storage system was invented within the late Nineteen Forties by Jack Mullin, an engineer from Santa Clara College, after observing the Nazi radio broadcasts of World Struggle II and realizing they’d a tool able to recording and reproducing sound. As a profitable electrical engineer, Mullin acknowledged the potential of this expertise and used it to create the muse of the magnetic tape storage we use to at the present time.
An article by NetworkWorld talks about why tape storage isn’t lifeless citing value as a main issue.
Tape means that you can separate the medium from the recording machine, which lets you purchase a handful of tape drives and 1000’s of tapes. These 1000’s of tapes additionally don’t want energy and cooling to keep up their knowledge. In truth, some have instructed that even when disk was free it could nonetheless value greater than tape because of the energy and cooling financial savings alone.
Credit score: NetworkWorld
That final sentence is a really highly effective one, and it must also apply to DNA knowledge storage which doesn’t want energy or cooling both (so we presume). Moreover, many don’t understand that tapes even have decrease error charges when writing knowledge than every other recording medium. “Tape is 1000X higher at writing ones and zeros than the perfect disk drive,” says the article, and 10X higher than solid-state drives. However in the case of retrieval, the pace of discs simply can’t be beat.
Tapes proceed to be the dominant resolution for secondary storage use instances the place knowledge must be held for lengthy durations of time for as cheaply as potential. The article cites leisure and biotech as two industries which are shopping for big tape libraries and filling them with 1000’s of tapes. This meshes properly with the clientele Twist Bioscience appears to be focusing on with their providing.
Alternatives for Disruption
So, what’s the benefit of utilizing DNA for knowledge storage? Whereas tape storage is the present normal for archival knowledge storage, it’s not with out its weaknesses. Catalog Applied sciences factors out that standard storage media “wouldn’t have the longevity, knowledge density, or value effectivity to satisfy the worldwide demand.” Since magnetic tape can solely keep intact for 30 years, underneath optimum circumstances, DNA has potential to disrupt it within the archival storage market, because the excessive density and lengthy lifespan of DNA makes it optimum for this goal.
Moreover, retrieval pace is a matter for tape storage. Tape drives have slower learn and write speeds than different storage units, with high-end speeds of solely a number of hundred megabytes (MB) per second. Retrieval occasions may additionally be affected by outdoors elements equivalent to together with community bandwidth, knowledge compression, and the general complexity of the info being retrieved. This makes tape excellent just for knowledge that doesn’t require frequent entry or pressing retrieval, equivalent to archiving. Within the high-performance computing market, the place the power to retailer and retrieve giant quantities of information effectively is essential, DNA could possibly get a leg up if it will possibly discover a method to shorten its retrieval course of, however at what value? DNA knowledge storage must compete with tapes on value, then with conventional arduous discs on pace. Given Genscript is speaking about researchers storing and retrieving 100 megabytes efficiently, simply how far-off are we from scalable economically viable DNA knowledge storage options? Or is that this only a cool expertise resolution searching for an issue to resolve?
It’s About TAM Time
Calculating TAM for DNA knowledge storage will be discovered by calculating the dimensions of the promote it’s seeking to disrupt, beginning with the archival knowledge market. Twist claims archival knowledge storage is a $35 billion market, nonetheless the worldwide tape storage market was estimated at $4.3 billion in 2019, and in response to Allied Market Analysis, is just anticipated to succeed in $9.4 billion by 2030. If Twist expects to disrupt solid-state and arduous disc drives, possibly they need to begin with the low hanging fruit. Apparent bottlenecks embrace value, pace, and complexity. If DNA storage fails to change into aggressive with tape storage, there will probably be just about no TAM as a result of nobody in his proper thoughts would spend more cash to retailer knowledge in a extra advanced method. Whole value of possession wants to incorporate:
- The price of writing the info to a DNA storage medium (must be intuitively costly)
- The price of storing the DNA storage medium (must be zero)
- The price of studying the info (isn’t this simply the price of sequencing)?
Lately, it prices $600 to sequence an entire genome which comprises round 200 gigabytes of information or about $3 per gig. In the present day, magnetic tape expertise presents the bottom buy worth of uncooked storage capability at round two cents per gigabyte, says Forbes. Certain, these are tough numbers, however we’re not satisfied DNA knowledge storage may even come near competing on value anytime quickly. A key element of your entire course of, the DNA knowledge author, will probably be critically necessary in figuring out how value efficient your entire course of will probably be, and Twist expects to permit early entry to this product providing later this yr.
Analysts ought to press the corporate concerning how far-off these pilot merchandise are from being value aggressive. DNA knowledge storage is just a portion of Twist’s choices, however they tout it of their investor decks as the subsequent largest factor. The one method we’ll know they’ve developed an economically viable product is when the revenues begin to pour in.
Conclusion
On one hand, Genscript claims to have a commercially accessible product for DNA storage. However, they speak about the necessity to discover companions to advance their expertise. If it’s economically viable, companions must be discovering them. Having the ability to retailer knowledge on DNA would possibly make for an ideal celebration trick, however we’re not satisfied that it’s an economically viable resolution that may substitute tape drives which appear to be managing simply wonderful. Till these corporations begin offering pace and price metrics that show they’ll compete with conventional knowledge storage strategies, we’re not satisfied they’ve constructed something that’s economically viable for knowledge storage wants.
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