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How DNA could provide data storage for more than our genetics

Dina Zielinski giving a TED talk
Thomas Suchanek / TED
Dina Zielinski giving a TED talk

Part 3 of the TED Radio Hour episode For All Eternity.

Humans are generating vast amounts of data each day — and we're running out of storage space. Molecular biologist Dina Zielinski discusses a solution that can pack tons of data into a tiny space: DNA.

About Dina Zielinski

Dina Zielinski is a bench scientist and bioinformatician. Most of her research has been in human genetics and genomics, from decoding mutations in cancer and rare diseases to encoding digital data in DNA. She studied biology and French at NYU, where she received her bachelor's degree. Dina started her career as a molecular biologist at the Whitehead Institute/MIT where she worked on bridging molecular and computational strategies in human genetics. Later, she moved to the New York Genome Center and Columbia University where she was inspired to focus on bioinformatics to bring biological data to life.

She is currently a senior scientist at Inserm (French National Institute of Health and Medical Research) where she develops predictive models using biomedical data to improve human health. She holds a master's degree in bioinformatics from the Université de Paris and a doctorate in genomics and biomedical informatics from Sorbonne Université.

This segment of the TED Radio Hour was produced by Katie Monteleone and edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour. You can follow us on Facebook @TEDRadioHour and email us at TEDRadioHour@npr.org.


Copyright 2026 NPR

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TED Radio Hour
Manoush Zomorodi
Manoush Zomorodi is the host of TED Radio Hour.
Katie Monteleone
Sanaz Meshkinpour