Method and system for biological information pattern storage and readout

1. A method of retrieving digital information stored in a biological system, the method comprising the steps of:

translating digital information to a biomolecular medium;

providing a microarray comprising a substrate receiving surface and a plurality of unique substrate-bound sequences in a selected pattern;

depositing a liquid droplet, or an array of liquid droplets, to the substrate receiving surface, wherein the liquid droplet comprises the biomolecular medium;

drying the liquid droplet(s) on the substrate receiving surface to form a progressive recession of a wetting line corresponding to a biological information pattern (BIP) wetting line and a corresponding dried residue pattern, wherein the recession of the BIP wetting line and corresponding dried residue pattern is influenced by an interaction or a lack of interaction between the biomolecular medium and the plurality of unique substrate-bound sequences to form a BIP;

imaging the dried residue pattern with an imager; and

processing the image of the dried residue pattern with a processer to calculate a wetting line optical parameter from the BIP wetting line, thereby decoding digital information stored in the biomolecular medium.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the biomolecular medium comprises a nucleic acid molecule.

3. The method of claim 1 , that is label-free.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the imaging step is by a sensor in a hand-held or mobile device.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the biomolecular medium comprises three regions:

a bead-binding sequence region;

a substrate-binding sequence region; and

a digital information region positioned between the bead-binding and substrate-binding regions.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the biomolecular medium comprises a nucleic acid sequence, an amino acid sequence, or a combination thereof and the substrate-bound sequences correspondingly comprise a nucleic acid sequence, an amino acid sequence, or a combination thereof.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the biomolecular medium comprises a plurality of short-stranded ssDNA, optionally of a length of between 20 and 50 nucleotides.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the liquid droplet(s) further comprise beads having a bead surface and a plurality of bead-bound sequences connected to the bead surface, wherein the bead-bound sequences have a sequence-binding region configured to bind to a bead-binding sequence region of a target sequence.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the beads comprise a polystyrene bead library.

10. A biological information pattern (BIP) system for readout of digital information stored in a biological medium comprising:

a microarray having:

a substrate with a receiving surface;

a plurality of unique substrate-bound sequences, each having a unique target sequence binding region;

a liquid droplet or an array of liquid droplets deposited on said substrate receiving surface, wherein said liquid droplet comprises beads and contains digital information stored in a biomolecular medium and said biomolecular medium comprises:

a plurality of target sequences, each target sequence having a target substrate-binding sequence region, a target bead-binding sequence region, and an information region positioned between the target substrate-binding sequence region and the target bead-binding sequence region;

an imager to detect the BIP;

wherein the target sequence binding region of the substrate-bound sequences are configured to specifically bind to the target substrate binding sequence region of a target sequence;

wherein during use said liquid droplet and plurality of unique substrate-bound sequences form a BIP wetting line detected by said imager to provide a read-out of the digital information;

wherein the imager comprises a camera to optically detect the BIP wetting line; and

a processor configured to calculate a wetting line optical parameter from the BIP wetting line.

11. The BIP system of claim 10 , wherein the wetting line optical parameter is one or more of: a geometric shape, a size, or a location on the substrate receiving surface.

12. The BIP system of claim 11 , wherein a readout of digital information is a label-free readout of a specific dried residue pattern.

13. The BIP system claim 10 , further comprising: a plurality of beads in the liquid medium, wherein the beads have a bead surface and a plurality of bead-bound sequences connected to the bead surface, wherein the bead-bound sequences have a target sequence-binding region configured to specifically bind to a bead-binding target sequence region of the target sequence.

14. The BIP system of claim 10 , wherein the sequences comprise nucleotide sequences.