Painting with DNA art reproduces photos in high resolution and 16 million colors

Amazing stuff! DNA as data storage?

"... The researchers then got to work painting with this DNA palette. They used a technique called maskless array synthesis (MAS), which allows them to synthesize hundreds of thousands of DNA sequences at once and determine which color to place on each “pixel” of the canvas. In doing so, they were able to reproduce digital images onto a canvas about the size of a fingernail, with 24-bit color depth at a resolution of 1024 x 768. The team says it should be possible to scale the process up to Full HD and even 4K eventually. ..."

From the abstract:

"Nucleic acid microarray photolithography combines density, throughput, and positional control in DNA synthesis. These surface-bound sequence libraries are conventionally used in large-scale hybridization assays against fluorescently labeled, perfect-match DNA strands. Here, we introduce another layer of control for in situ microarray synthesis─hybridization affinity─to precisely modulate fluorescence intensity upon duplex formation. Using a combination of Cy3-, Cy5-, and fluorescein-labeled targets and an ensemble of truncated DNA probes, we organize 256 shades of red, green, and blue intensities that can be superimposed and merged. In so doing, hybridization alone is able to produce a large palette of 16 million colors or 24-bit color depth. Digital images can be reproduced with high fidelity at the micrometer scale by using a simple process that assigns sequence to any RGB value. Largely automated, this approach can be seen as miniaturized DNA-based painting."

DNA art reproduces photos in high resolution and 16 million colors Scientists have developed a way to “paint” with DNA, creating 16 million colors to accurately reproduce digital images with 24-bit color depth. The resulting images are incredible, and represent not just a new art form but potential advances for storing data on DNA.

Art with DNA – Digitally creating 16 million colors by chemistry The DNA double helix is composed of two DNA molecules whose sequences are complementary to each other. The stability of the duplex can be fine-tuned in the lab by controlling the amount and location of imperfect complementary sequences. Fluorescent markers bound to one of the matching DNA strands make the duplex visible, and fluorescence intensity increases with increasing duplex stability. Now, researchers at the University of Vienna succeeded in creating fluorescent duplexes that can generate any of 16 million colors – a work that surpasses the previous 256 colors limitation. This very large palette can be used to "paint" with DNA and to accurately reproduce any digital image on a miniature 2D surface with 24-bit color depth. ...

A Canvas of Spatially Arranged DNA Strands that Can Produce 24-bit Color Depth (open access)

Figure 3. Reproduction process of a 24-bit color digital input into a DNA microarray of equal color depth.