Digital signatures to ensure the authenticity and integrity of synthetic DNA molecules

DNA synthesis has become increasingly common, and many synthetic DNA molecules are licensed intellectual property (IP). DNA samples are shared between academic labs, ordered from DNA synthesis companies and manipulated for a variety of different purposes, mostly to study their properties and improve upon them. However, it is not uncommon for a sample to change hands many times with very little accompanying information and no proof of origin. This poses significant challenges to the original inventor of a DNA molecule, trying to protect her IP rights. More importantly, following the anthrax attacks of 2001, there is an increased urgency to employ microbial forensic technologies to trace and track agent inventories. However, attribution of physical samples is next to impossible with existing technologies. In this research, we describe our efforts to solve this problem by embedding digital signatures in DNA molecules synthesized in the laboratory. We encounter several challenges that we do not face in the digital world. These challenges arise primarily from the fact that changes to a physical DNA molecule can affect its properties, random mutations can accumulate in DNA samples over time, DNA sequencers can sequence (read) DNA erroneously and DNA sequencing is still relatively expensive (which means that laboratories would prefer not to read and re-read their DNA samples to get error-free sequences). We address these challenges and present a digital signature technology that can be applied to synthetic DNA molecules in living cells.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (M.S.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Computer Science

Grantor dc:publisher

Colorado State University. Libraries

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Authors dc:creator

• Kar, Diptendu Mohan, author
• Ray, Indrajit, advisor
• Ray, Indrakshi, advisor
• Vijayasarathy, Leo R., committee member
• Peccoud, Jean, committee member

• identity based signatures
• elliptic curve cryptography
• cyber-bio security
• pairing-based cryptography
• DNA
• Reed-Solomon codes

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.

Language dc:language.iso

eng, English

Identifier URI

https://doi.org/10.25675/3.018816

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:mountainscholar.org:10217/195249