---
title: "Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram"
description: "A geneticist at Harvard has successfully stored 5.5 petabits of data - around 700 terabytes - in a single gram of DNA, smashing the previous DNA data density record by a thousand times."
date: "2014-12-22"
modified: "2015-08-13"
authors:
  - name: "Alex Klokus"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/alex-klokus.md"
url: "https://futurism.com/harvard-cracks-dna-storage-crams-700-terabytes-of-data-into-a-single-gram-extremetech"
categories:
  - "DNA"
  - "Genetics"
  - "Health & Medicine"
tags:
  - "biology"
---

# Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram

![Default Futurism featured image](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Futurism-Filler-Image.jpg>)

- Instead of binary data being encoded as magnetic regions on a hard drive platter, strands of DNA that store 96 bits are synthesized, with each of the bases (TGAC) rep
- To read the data stored in DNA, you simply sequence it — just as if you were sequencing the human genome — and convert each of the TGAC bases back into binary.
- It’s also worth noting that it’s possible to store data in the DNA of living cells — though only for a short time.

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexklokus>)

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