Hackers meet their match: New DNA encryption protects engineered cells from within

Sanjukta Mondal

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Engineered cells are a high-value genetic asset that is key to many fields, including biotechnology, medicine, aging, and stem cell research, with the global market projected to reach $8.0 trillion USD by 2035. Yet the only ways to keep the cells safe are strong locks and watchful guards.

In Science Advances, a team of U.S. researchers present a new approach to genetically securing precious biological material. They created a genetic combination lock in which the locking or encryption process scrambled the DNA of a cell so that its important instructions were non-functional and couldn't be easily read or used.

The unlocking, or decryption, process involves adding a series of chemicals in a precise order over time—like entering a password—to activate recombinases, which then unscramble the DNA to their original, functional form.

The researchers conducted an ethical hacking exercise on the test lock and found that random guessing yielded a 0.2% success rate, remarkably close to the theoretical target of 0.1%.

Turning the assets into locks

The U.S.'s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Department of Homeland Security have reported an uptick in the theft and smuggling of high-value biological materials, including specially engineered cells. In recent years, there has also been a record rise in unauthorized shipments and attempts at industrial espionage. In the wrong hands, these materials could be misused to create bioweapons or deliberately harm the environment.

Currently, valuable cells are primarily protected by physical measures such as locks, cameras, and guards. Once these barriers are breached, there is little left to prevent the cells from being stolen and misused.

In this study, researchers used a cybersecurity-inspired approach to protect cells at the DNA level by using the cell's own biological security system. They developed a scenario-based simulation using a designing group (blue team) and a decrypting group (red team).

First, the development (blue team) scrambled the DNA by rearranging and flipping genetic instructions so the cell could no longer read them correctly. They started with a functional genetic unit that includes a promoter (the ON switch) and the gene of interest. They then broke this unit into separate parts, arranged them in the wrong order, and flipped some segments backwards.

To make sure these can be unscrambled later, they placed special DNA sequences called recombinase attachment sites around them.

For decryption, the team used a precise sequence of chemicals to trigger the cell's machinery to physically rearrange the scrambled DNA and restore it to its functional state. They created a biological keypad with nine distinct chemicals, each acting as a one-digit input.

By using the same chemicals in pairs to form two-digit inputs, where two chemicals must be present simultaneously to activate a sensor, they expanded the keypad to 45 possible chemical inputs without introducing any new chemicals. They also added safety penalties—if someone tampers with the system, toxins are released—making it extremely unlikely for an unauthorized person to access the cells.

Then the red team, who kept out of the encryption process development, stepped in as ethical hackers, tasked with trying to break into the system and access the hidden genetic information. In their first attempt, they uncovered 10 different chemical combinations that partially unlocked the cells, revealing weak spots in the design.

After the developers patched these flaws, the hackers tried again. This time, only the exact passcode worked, showing that the odds of an unauthorized person guessing it had dropped to just two in 990, or 0.2%.

The researchers note that the strong performance of this biological lock signals a shift in biological security, in which genetic material is protected by safety algorithms built into the DNA itself, making the assets their own protectors.

This study designed the system around engineered E. coli cells, but further research is needed to determine whether it can be applied to other organisms and scaled to protect multiple genes or assets within a single cell.

Written for you by our author Sanjukta Mondal, edited by Lisa Lock, and fact-checked and reviewed by Robert Egan—this article is the result of careful human work. We rely on readers like you to keep independent science journalism alive. If this reporting matters to you, please consider a donation (especially monthly). You'll get an ad-free account as a thank-you.

Publication details

Dowan Kim et al, Protecting cells at the genetic level and simulating unauthorized access via a biohackathon, Science Advances (2026). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aeb8556

Journal information: Science Advances

Key concepts

bacteriagenetically engineered organismsBiological materials

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