EAGER: PUF-based Probe Design for Secure Access to DNA Storage

A functioning economy depends on the reliability of the goods and services being offered. Consumer goods from prescription or over-the-counter drugs to computers, automobiles, and appliances, all have unique individual or batch numbers. Raw materials used in every industry have similar identification labeling. As the bioeconomy develops, it will be necessary to uniquely identify all organisms in use. This will be important to establish strict biosafety and biosecurity protocols. This project will investigate a strategy to uniquely label individual strains of cells that will be inherited but not able to be replicated or read by a third party. This could help ensure the safety and security of a robust bioeconomy. The project will investigate the use of DNA as the core of an addressable, secure data storage system. Towards that end, the project team will pursue two aims. Aim 1 involves the use of CRISPR-technology to perform genome editing of cell lines for distributed information storage. They propose to investigate the properties of physically unclonable functions (PUFs) in a library of cell lines and characterize different genomic locations and assess the off-target effects of CRISPR editing. The second aim is to develop a prototype on-chip PUF probe. This probe will help determine whether a PUF key array can be implemented effectively. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.