Genome recording makes living cells their own historians

July 17, 2024 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlightedthe following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: fact-checked peer-reviewed publication trusted source proofread by University of Washington School of Medicine Genomes can now be entrusted to store information about a variety of transient biological events inside of living cells, as they happen, like a flight recorder collecting data from an aircraft. "Our method, which goes by the acronym ENGRAM, aims to turn cells into their own historians," said Dr.

Jay Shendure, a professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine and scientific director of the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine. Shendure led the effort, together with Wei Chen, a former graduate student, and Junhong Choi, a former postdoctoral fellow. Choi is now an assistant investigator at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

ENGRAM stands for enhancer-driven genomic recording of transcriptional activity in multiplex. The acronym was inspired by a neuroscience term that refers to the physical basis for a memory. A proof-of-concept report demonstrating some of the capabilities of ENGRAM is published today, July 17, in Nature .

"ENGRAM couples each kind of biological signal or event to a symbolic barcode. This approach offers a novel method for recording and complements previously developed molecular recording techniques," sa.