High surface area coatings are applied to solid substrates to increase the surface area available for solid-phase synthesis of polymers. The high surface area coatings use three-dimensional space to provide more area for functional groups to bind polymers than an untreated solid substrate. The polymers may be oligonucleotides, polypeptides, or another type of polymer. The solid substrate is a rigid supportive layer made from a material such as glass, a silicon material, a metal material, and plastic. The coating may be thin films, hydrogels, microparticles. The coating may be made from a metal oxide, a high- dielectric, a low- dielectric, an etched metal, a carbon material, or an organic polymer. The functional groups may be hydroxyl groups, amine groups, thiolate groups, alkenes, n-alkenes, alkalines, N-Hydroxysuccinimide (NHS)-activated esters, polyaniline, aminosilane groups, silanized oxides, oligothiophenes, and diazonium compounds. Techniques for applying coatings to solid substrates and attaching functional groups are also disclosed.

A device for synthesis of macromolecules is disclosed. In one aspect, the device comprises an ion-releaser having a synthesis surface comprising an array of synthesis locations arranged for synthesis of the macromolecules. The ion-releaser also includes an ion-source electrode, which is arranged to contain releasable ions and is arranged to be in contact with each of the synthesis locations of the synthesis surface, thereby release ions to the synthesis locations. The ion-releaser further comprises activating electrodes, which are arranged to be in contact with the ion-source electrode, wherein each one of the activating electrodes is arranged in association with one of the synthesis locations via the ion-source electrode. The ion-releaser is arranged to release at least a portion of the releasable ions from the ion-source electrode to one of the synthesis locations, by activation of the activating electrode associated with the synthesis location.

Nucleic acid memory strands encoding digital data using a sequence of homopolymer tracts of repeated nucleotides provides a cheaper and faster alternative to conventional digital DNA storage techniques. The use of homopolymer tracts allows for lower fidelity, high throughput sequencing techniques such as nanopore sequencing to read data encoded in the memory strands. Specialized synthesis techniques allow for synthesis of long memory strands capable of encoding large volumes of data despite the reduced data density afforded by homopolymer tracts as compared to conventional single nucleotide sequences.

There is disclosed a process for in vitro synthesis and assembly of long, gene-length polynucleotides based upon assembly of multiple shorter oligonucleotides synthesized in situ on a microarray platform. Specifically, there is disclosed a process for in situ synthesis of oligonucleotide fragments on a solid phase microarray platform and subsequent, on device assembly of larger polynucleotides composed of a plurality of shorter oligonucleotide fragments.

There is disclosed a microarray having base cleavable linkers and a process of making the microarray. The microarray has a solid surface with known locations, each having reactive hydroxyl groups. The density of the known locations is greater than approximately 100 locations per square centimeter. Optionally, oligomers are synthesized in situ onto the cleavable linkers and subsequently cleaved using a cleaving base. Optionally, the oligomers are cleaved and recovered as a pool of oligomers.

The present disclosure provides an apparatus for synthesizing a biopolymer, a method for preparing an apparatus for synthesizing a biopolymer, and a method of synthesizing a biopolymer. The apparatus comprises (a) a substrate comprising atop surface and a plurality of wells, wherein each of the plurality of wells comprises a first electrode disposed on the bottom of the well and a linker attached to the sides of the well; and (b) a fluidic chamber system disposed on the top surface of the substrate.

The present disclosure provides methods of activating an enzyme, such as error prone or template independent polymerase, using electricity to alter pH of a reaction zone and reaction site from an inactivating pH at which the enzyme is inactive to an activating pH at which the enzyme is active to add a nucleotide to an initiator or growing polymer chain. The activating pH can then be changed back to an inactivating pH and the process repeated as many times as desired to produce a target nucleic acid sequence.

A method of storing information using monomers such as nucleotides is provided including converting a format of information into a plurality of bit sequences of a bit stream with each having a corresponding bit barcode, converting the plurality of bit sequences to a plurality of corresponding oligonucleotide sequences using one bit per base encoding, synthesizing the plurality of corresponding oligonucleotide sequences on a substrate having a plurality of reaction locations, and storing the synthesized plurality of corresponding oligonucleotide sequences.

A method of storing information using monomers such as nucleotides is provided including converting a format of information into a plurality of bit sequences of a bit stream with each having a corresponding bit barcode, converting the plurality of bit sequences to a plurality of corresponding oligonucleotide sequences using one bit per base encoding, synthesizing the plurality of corresponding oligonucleotide sequences on a substrate having a plurality of reaction locations, and storing the synthesized plurality of corresponding oligonucleotide sequences.

There is disclosed a microarray having base cleavable linkers and a process of making the microarray. The microarray has a solid surface with known locations, each having reactive hydroxyl groups. The density of the known locations is greater than approximately 100 locations per square centimeter. Optionally, oligomers are synthesized in situ onto the cleavable linkers and subsequently cleaved using a cleaving base. Optionally, the oligomers are cleaved and recovered as a pool of oligomers.