About

Throughout the course of the summer, we have investigated and assessed the safety, security and sustainability of our project. Additionally, we have made enquiries into the public perceptions and policy considerations that surround the implementation of our method.

As with all scientific research, safety is paramount. Our project proposes an alternative use for DNA; rather than storing genetic information, we have designed DNA sequences as a medium for data storage. Though not working with genetically modified organisms, we have ensured our method is safe to use and distribute through conversations with social scientists, policy makers and our own friends and family.

From the initiation of our project idea, we have had a keen interest in designing an encryption method for our DNA data. As our project is the first to encrypt DNA sequences, the development of our encryption was heavily reliant on help from experts in the field; we met with 4 professors from the university, corresponded with the Executive Director of Information Security at Goldman Sachs and consulted Special Agent Edward You from the FBI.To see how we went beyond cryptography, and integrated principles of cybersecurity, click here.

After discussing the feedback we had received about safety and security in our project, we decided it was important that we also consider the policy surrounding our project. For example, how public perceptions may influence how or if our project would be used, and how public perception may differ from government regulation.

See our page on Responsibility here.

Sustainability is key to the practicality of our project. To communicate the dire need for alternative data storage methods, and to reinforce the strengths of DNA as a medium, we used statistics from local librarians to use as model comparisons to our method.

See more of our modeling and comparisons here.

To view an interactive timeline of our meetings, and to discover how we integrated feedback into our project, click here.