New US Export Control Plan Highlights Value of Global QC Expertise

Using biological building blocks in place of traditional materials to assemble computers has been a research topic for many years, but recently the first potential commercial use cases have begun to emerge, centered on storage for large data sets. The DNA Storage Alliance, created to promote a storage ecosystem based on synthesized DNA strands, recently shared their aspirations for the emerging technology that offers significant promise in durability, simplicity, cost, and density over traditional magnetic counterparts. The initial goals of the alliance are to educate the public and raise awareness about DNA-based storage. Further out, the alliance may pursue the creation of specifications and standards, such as encoding, physical interfaces, retention, and file systems, to ensure that DNA-based solutions complement existing storage hierarchies. The alliance notes that expectations for the growth rate of current storage mechanisms cannot keep pace with the rising demand for data storage, particularly where growing data retention and related data mining efforts are driving the need to save increasingly larger data sets for longer periods of time. Such requirements are well suited to DNA-based archive storage characteristics in applications including digital content creation, robotics, smart cities, autonomous vehicles, healthcare, astronomy, and climate science.

At the recent CES 2022 tech event, Japanese corporation OMRON, the world’s leading manufacturer and distributor of personal heart health products and other medical devices, highlighted (and later announced on their website) the activities of their partnership with Kyoto University to develop an AI[1]powered platform that uses remotely gathered patient data to predict cardiovascular diseases at an earlier stage than current averages. Kyoto University is closely tied to the identity of Japan's government and considered Japan's leading research university. They operate a Top500 HPC system on-site in addition to conducting research on the cutting edge Fugaku supercomputer. This new program, part of an ongoing partnership between the two organizations, seeks to explore the use of AI to analyze blood pressure metrics for early detection of cardiovascular diseases faster and with greater accuracy allowing for treatment courses to be changed or taken more quickly.