Cryptography in the DNA of living cells enabled by multi-site base editing

Volf, V.; Zhang, S.; Song, K. M.; Qian, S.; Chen, F.; Church, G.

doi:10.1101/2023.11.15.567131

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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2023.11.15.567131

Cryptography in the DNA of living cells enabled by multi-site base editing

Volf, V.·Zhang, S.·Song, K. M.·Qian, S.·Chen, F.·Church, G.

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Abstract

Although DNA is increasingly being adopted as a generalizable medium for information storage and transfer, reliable methods for ensuring information security remain to be addressed. In this study, we developed and validated a cryptographic encoding scheme, Genomic Sequence Encryption (GSE), to address the challenge of information confidentiality and integrity in biological substrates. GSE enables genomic information encoding that is readable only with a cryptographic key. We show that GSE can be used for cell signatures that enable the recipient of a cell line to authenticate its origin and validate if the cell line has been modified in the interim. We implement GSE through multi-site base editing and encode information through editing across >100 genomic sites in mammalian cells. We further present an enrichment step to obtain individual stem cells with more than two dozen edits across a single genome with minimal screening. This capability can be used to introduce encrypted signatures in living animals. As an encryption scheme, GSE is falsification-proof and enables secure information transfer in biological substrates.

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Volf, V., Zhang, S., Song, K. M., Qian, S., Chen, F., Church, G.. 2023-11-15. Cryptography in the DNA of living cells enabled by multi-site base editing. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.11.15.567131

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