Description of the thesis topic

The aim of the PhD is to assess the environmental footprint of DNA storage and computation using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). This emerging technology promises a drastic reduction in the energy consumption of information storage and processing. The project will first examine the environmental footprint of basic biochemical processes, then quantify the impacts of this emerging technology in collaboration with experts in LCA and DNA nanotechnology.

Emerging technologies try to justify their wide use either by their power, their efficiency, or, more recently, their sustainability. For obvious reasons, computing and information treatment abounds in technological innovations. However, a major concern is the increased energy and material consumption of data storage and retreaval.

Since ten years, DNA is being considered as a promising material support for digital data storage, after being the support of biological data storage for a couple of billion years. DNA has been demonstrated to be able to encode information at very high densities1, up to 1018 bits/mm3, which is 8 orders of magnitude larger than current hard disk technology2. In addition, it has the capability of storing data for long periods of time (larger than 1000 years) without consuming energy. The drawbacks of this emerging technology are the low speed of data retrieval and the high cost of data writing, the latter being due to current DNA synthesis technology.

One possibility to go from low speed (so called cold storage) to high speed (i.e. warm storage) reading of DNA stored data is to perform directly computations, and data search, with DNA. A first step in this direction was performed by our collaborators on a recent work on enzymatic neural networks3. This technology uses enzymatic reactions to implement a DNA-encoded enzymatic neural network that computes directly on data stored in DNA. Interestingly, this technology consumes 30000-fold less energy than its electronic counterpart for performing a given computation.

In this PhD project we will go beyond this back-of-the-envelope energy consumption estimate and attempt to quantify the environmental footprint of DNA storage and DNA computing. To do so we will work in the framework of prospective life cycle analysis (LCA)4 taking from starting point a recent LCA investigation of DNA storage5. The project will benefit from our strong expertise both in DNA nanotechnology6 and LCA7 and will be carried out in close collaboration with Philippe Loubet, Assoc. Prof. at Bordeaux INP and LCA expert.

1 Erlich, Y. & Zielinski, D. DNA Fountain enables a robust and efficient storage architecture. Science 355, 950–954
(2017).
2 Church, G. M., Gao, Y. & Kosuri, S. Next-Generation Digital Information Storage in DNA. Science 337, 1628–
1628 (2012).
3 Okumura, S. et al. Nonlinear decision-making with enzymatic neural networks. Nature 610, 496–501 (2022).
4 Bergerson, J. A. et al. Life cycle assessment of emerging technologies: Evaluation techniques at different stages of
market and technical maturity. J of Industrial Ecology 24, 11–25 (2020)..
5 Nguyen, B. et al. Architecting Datacenters for Sustainability: Greener Data Storage using Synthetic DNA. in
Electronics Goes Green 2020 (IEEE, 2020).
6 Zadorin, A. S. et al. Synthesis and materialization of a reaction–diffusion French flag pattern. Nature Chemistry 9,
990 (2017).
7 De Paepe, M., Jeanneau, L., Mariette, J., Aumont, O. & Estevez-Torres, A. Purchases dominate the carbon footprint
of research laboratories. PLOS Sustainability and Transformation 3, e0000116 (2024).
8 Loubet, P. et al. Life cycle assessment of ICT in higher education: a comparison between desktop and single-board
computers. Int J Life Cycle Assess 28, 255–273 (2023).

Work Context

The work will be carried out at the LASIRE laboratory, at the chemistry-environment interface, within the context of a Franco-Japanese collaboration funded by the CNRS (https://www.cnrs.fr/fr/nos-recherches/france-2030/projet-ri2/calcadn). The candidate will conduct their research within the Environmental Physico-Chemistry team of LASIRE, which includes water and atmospheric chemists and ecologists. The thesis will be supervised by André Estevez-Torres (Research Director in chemistry/sustainability sciences) in collaboration with Philippe Loubet, an LCA specialist at Bordeaux INP. This work is part of the Institute for Environmental and Social Transitions at the University of Lille, in a very rich and interdisciplinary work environment focused on environmental issues.
The work will primarily involve developing and using life cycle analysis methods tailored to emerging technologies and will be conducted using a computer. Strong skills in life cycle analysis, programming in Python or R, and database usage are required. The candidate should have an interest in ecological issues. A background in engineering or environmental sciences is expected.

The position is located in a sector under the protection of scientific and technical potential (PPST), and therefore requires, in accordance with the regulations, that your arrival is authorized by the competent authority of the MESR.

Constraints and risks

Computer work