Researchers integrate DNA instructions into a 3D part to facilitate its duplication

What if you could 3D print a DNA sequence? This is the idea behind this white rabbit, designed by researchers at ETH Zurich and an Israeli DNA storage company, Erlich Lab. They 3D printed a Stanford rabbit and incorporated all the instructions to reproduce it later: no more need for CAD files, STL, or other digital formats. The rabbit is said to contain about 45 kilobytes of information on how to print it, incorporated into tiny glass beads, which in turn would be integrated into the plastic used.

3D printing already had a significant impact on the storage of our objects, allowing us to create on demand, wherever we are, thanks to 3D files. The research work of this team goes further since all the data in the object itself. A particularly interesting advance over time: you might think a rabbit is not very interesting in itself, but imagine if we could do that with works of art, drugs, buildings, etc. The possibilities are wide; the teams add: “You can imagine a system where everything is labelled with small pieces of useful information.”

Integrate the rabbit’s DNA into the part

The researchers explain that they used the four nitrogenous bases of DNA (adenine (A), cytosine (C), thymine (T) and guanine (G)) to code the instructions necessary for 3D printing of the rabbit; DNA sequencing can then be synthesized. As the latter is extremely fragile – its deterioration is faster than we think – a solution had to be found to protect it. That is why the researchers locked him in microscopic glass beads that were themselves incorporated into the manufacturing plastic. The printing process could then begin on an Ultimaker machine.