Enabling global-scale nucleic acid repositories through versatile, scalable biochemical selection from room-temperature archives.
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| Abstract | Conventional storage and retrieval of nucleic acid specimens, particularly unstable RNA, rely on costly cold-chain infrastructure and inefficient robotic handling, inhibiting large-scale nucleic acid archives needed for global genomic biobanking. We introduce a scalable room-temperature storage system with minimal physical footprint that enables database-like queries on encapsulated, barcoded, and pooled nucleic acid samples. Queries incorporate numerical ranges, categorical filters, and combinations thereof, advancing beyond previous demonstrations of single-sample retrieval or Boolean classifiers. We evaluate this system on ninety-six mock SARS-CoV-2 genomic samples barcoded with theoretical patient data including age, location, and diagnostic state, demonstrating rapid, scalable retrieval. We further demonstrate storage and sequencing of human patient-derived nucleic acid samples, illustrating applicability to clinical genomic analysis. By avoiding freezer-based storage and retrieval, this approach scales to millions of samples without loss of fidelity or throughput, enabling large-scale pathogen and genomic repositories in under-resourced or isolated regions of the US and worldwide. |
| Year of Publication | 2026
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| Journal | Nature communications
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| Date Published | 02/2026
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| ISSN | 2041-1723
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| DOI | 10.1038/s41467-026-69402-3
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| PubMed ID | 41690936
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