Eadweard Muybridge
The very first motion picture of a galloping mare filmed in 1878 by the British photographer, Eadweard Muybridge is now the first movie ever to be encoded in the DNA of a living cell by Harvard researchers, where it can be retrieved at will and multiplied indefinitely as the host cells divide and grow. “What we’re trying to develop is a molecular recorder that can sit inside living cells and collect data over time.” said Seth Shipman, a neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School .Cellular events that are hard to observe in real time like the processes occuring during brain development can be observed. Microbes can also be turned into living sentinels to monitor environmental pollution as they
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can keep a running record of heavy metals and other pollutants when spread on the soil. Earlier,Shipman’s boss, George Church, a molecular chemist and engineer at Harvard, converted an entire book into a strand of genetic code. Each frame of the 5 framed film was broken into a grid of 36 pixels by 26 pixels.Next the color of each pixel was coded using the nucleotides A, C, T and G.
A code that indicated where in the frame each pixel belonged was also included. However,the researchers did not encode the order of the frames to see if the bacterial DNA captures the new information in order. In the end, each frame consisting of 104 DNA sequences was inserted into a population of bacteria cells using a process called electroporation. The cells were zapped with electricity creating pores in their membrane to allow the synthesized DNA to pass into them.
Once the DNA pieces were in the cells, the researchers relied on the gene editing system known as CRISPR to grab the free-floating pixel codes and insert them into the bacteria’s genome. CRISPR is a group of proteins and DNA that act as an immune system in some bacteria,.When a virus infects a bacterium, CRISPR cuts out part of the foreign DNA and stores it in the bacteria's own genome. The bacterium then uses the stored DNA to recognize the virus and defend against future attacks."The sequential nature of CRISPR makes it an appealing system for recording events over time," explained
Shipman. Using this process, Shipman and his colleagues “uploaded” their movie into the bacteria’s DNA at a rate of one frame each day. After the entire movie had been inserted into the genome, the cells were boiled to extract the DNA .The regions where the encoded movie frames were thought to be present were sequenced.The extracted sequences were ran through a computer program and the researchers were able to play back their movie with 90% accuracy! It turns out that the bacteria’s DNA conveniently stores new information in the order it is received.
can keep a running record of heavy metals and other pollutants when spread on the soil. Earlier,Shipman’s boss, George Church, a molecular chemist and engineer at Harvard, converted an entire book into a strand of genetic code. Each frame of the 5 framed film was broken into a grid of 36 pixels by 26 pixels.Next the color of each pixel was coded using the nucleotides A, C, T and G.
A code that indicated where in the frame each pixel belonged was also included. However,the researchers did not encode the order of the frames to see if the bacterial DNA captures the new information in order. In the end, each frame consisting of 104 DNA sequences was inserted into a population of bacteria cells using a process called electroporation. The cells were zapped with electricity creating pores in their membrane to allow the synthesized DNA to pass into them.
Once the DNA pieces were in the cells, the researchers relied on the gene editing system known as CRISPR to grab the free-floating pixel codes and insert them into the bacteria’s genome. CRISPR is a group of proteins and DNA that act as an immune system in some bacteria,.When a virus infects a bacterium, CRISPR cuts out part of the foreign DNA and stores it in the bacteria's own genome. The bacterium then uses the stored DNA to recognize the virus and defend against future attacks."The sequential nature of CRISPR makes it an appealing system for recording events over time," explained
Shipman. Using this process, Shipman and his colleagues “uploaded” their movie into the bacteria’s DNA at a rate of one frame each day. After the entire movie had been inserted into the genome, the cells were boiled to extract the DNA .The regions where the encoded movie frames were thought to be present were sequenced.The extracted sequences were ran through a computer program and the researchers were able to play back their movie with 90% accuracy! It turns out that the bacteria’s DNA conveniently stores new information in the order it is received.