We did it!

And we are in flux

“It was a time when the unthinkable became the thinkable and the impossible really happened”
- Arundhati Roy, God of Small Things

This time last year, I put forth a hypothesis - that we could use DNA modification to encode data in DNA, at a significantly lower cost as compared to de novo synthesis.

It’s super exciting that we have cracked the proof of concept -we have stored data in DNA by editing in our lab, read it back using the Oxford Nanopore sequencer and fabricated our own solid state nanopores. The outcome is clear - our hypothesis stands.

This is how we currently store data in DNA

Retrieving the data we stored

The ohmic curve after we have fabricated the solid state pore

On some days when I zoom out, it feels like magic that a team of four young people got this far at the bleeding edge of tech with limited capital, infrastructure and time.

Some Wins

1. We recently wrapped up the Nucleate Activator. And BioCompute won the best pitch award in the Tech Bio category during the Demo Day. I hope to be able to go in for the Summit in August (if the visa comes through of course!)

2. I have been featured in the ‘Code of Her Own’ coffee table book put together by HerKey (India’s largest network for women professionals) in collaboration with the Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) to spotlight women entrepreneurs building in the state. I joined the HerRising the summit yesterday in Bangalore, spoke in a panel alongside a few incredible industry leaders, and met a lot of interesting folks.

With Khushboo and Pragati who put the book together

3. Karan from Swarajya magazine featured us alongside a few incredible young founders in deep tech.

Team BioCompute celebrating the small and not so small wins

In Flux (pun intended)

We are now all set to accelerate our progress and scale up. Super excited that the 1517 fund is backing us through their Flux Capacitor program and that gradCapital is doubling down on us.

After having spent a year wobbling around between an incubator, a home lab, and a university lab (a huge shout out to Atria University for supporting us over the last few months), we are now all set to move into our own space. That means that my team is largely in flux for the next few weeks.

I am super disappointed that I have had to miss the ‘Storage and Computing with DNA’ conference happening in Paris over these few days because my visa to France didn’t come through in time. But I hope to reach out and chat to a lot of folks within the community, and build networks outside the conference as well.

*****

Over the next month, I hope to share a few open problems that we are looking for extraordinary folks to come and help us solve - either full time or part time, based on what is the best fit for both of us. If you have thoughts on what you would like to work with us on, drop me a line.