This is my first post, which I wanted be short and introductory, but due to Khaled’s previous posts, which I find very useful, I think I can skip the introduction already and get to more precised topic as a last step for “drawing” the “shape” of our project in the reader’s mind.

Allow me to redefine some of the basic outlines for our project by introducing this simple Q&A form..

Q: Are you going to work on the live/real DNA ?

A: No,actually this is too far from the image we tend to draw for our project, we more aim to theoretically develop and implement techniques to be used for hiding data in DNA sequences.

Q: So how will you represent a DNA sequence if not using the real one ?

A: DNA sequences are already stored as information and available  for the research purpose you can google GenBank and other providers for such information, you can simply think of a DNA sequence as a sequence of characters (string) with base of 4 characters (A,G,C,T) representing the genetic code, the same like a sequence of binary digits (0, 1) representing a computer machine code.

Q. What shape would the project’s deliverable take ?

A. As i noted before, we are building a technique for data hiding, and that implies developing an application that must perform the three basic functions of hiding on DNA data.

Q.What are the three basic functions of data hiding that your application should provide ?

A: Any data hiding technique consists of 3 basic functions/operations those are: Import, embedding and extraction. By those functions the application will be able to import DNA from a public online database (such as GenBank) and let the user select one of the implemented techniques for embedding data into a DNA sequence and/or extracting (retrieving) information from a DNA sequence carrying hidden data.

I hope I could reveal some of the ambiguity about our project in this short post

Thanks for reading and feel free to ask

and remember to feel more free to…

Have Fun

So, it’s a question I’ve been asked so many times

What do you want to do exactly?

so…finally the time has come to reveal the answer

before I begin describing the idea I assume that you understand the cycle of the DNA

if you don’t please read this post first:

http://hidna.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/hey-whats-dna/

There are two main questions must be answered to answer the previous question

Why…and how?

Why will we hide data in DNA?

DNA and RNA nowadays are considered storage medias, just like hard disks or RAMs.

DNA sequences themselves cannot be patented, but for example, academic and commercial institutions may feel comfortable conducting years of costly researches for isolating and recombining a gene responsible for some vital enzyme if there was some way to embed a watermark identifying their contribution.

So, we are intending to provide a way to hide data (such as watermarks) inside the DNA without changing it and without changing its functions

and that brings us to the next question

How will we hide data in DNA?

In the matter of fact, how will we hide it without changing the DNA’s function?

well, to be more precise, we are hiding data in the mRNA which is taken from the DNA

and as we know, a codon consists of 3 letters

and we have 4 letters (‘A’, ‘U’, ‘G’, ‘C’)  [Notice: 'T' in the DNA = 'U' in the mRNA]

so the possible combinations are 4³ = 64 combination

and we have only 20 amino acids

and that means that there is redundancy, that more than one combination can produce the same amino acid.

So to hide data, we benefit from this property by changing codons by others, which will produce the same amino acids, which will not change the function of the DNA.

for example:

if we assumed that both codons ‘ACC’ and ‘GCA’ both produce the same amino acid

so we simply replace one by another

so if our sequence was:

ACG AGC ACC GCU ….

it will be converted to:

ACG AGC GCA GCU ….

The exact technique for doing this will be explained in the upcoming posts ISA

but for now, this is a quick description of what we are trying to do

It might seem hard to understand what we want to do, so try reading the post again

and make sure to understand the cycle of the DNA

and of course you are mostly welcomed to ask any questions, and we’ll be so glad to answer you

thanks for reading

and remember our slogan,

have fun in whatever you’re doing to finish it in a beautiful way

We’re talking in this blog about our project “Hiding data in DNA”

but before we can tell you more about our project, you must know what exactly is DNA

so, let’s see a quick tutorial, it shall answer all your questions about DNA

It’s a simple and easy tutorial made by the university of UTAH

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/tour/

And you also can download it from here as a (.exe) file from here:

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/tour/GeneticsTour.exe

and hey, feel free to ask any questions

and remember…always have fun

I bet your asking what is this?!…

This is our blog to introduce our graduation project to you world

World: Why?!?!

Me: well, we thought that we must share our knowledge and researches so that anybody trying to make any relating project  can find resources here

World: hey!!…who are you?

Me: We are a group of students…we are in the Faculty of computer and information science – ain shams university in Egypt…let me introduce the team

• Ahmed Youssef
• Khaled Hamdy
• Feras Ahmed

World: Oh, hi all…so it’s another blog to document a graduation project!

Me: Well, it might seem so to you, but for us it’s different…it’s the joy of sharing and explaining what we know in an easy way to everybody…and it’s a way to have fun while working

World: mmm…nice…so can you tell me more about your project?

Me: Of course man , look…briefly we aim to hide data in DNA, as it’s considered now a storage media so hiding data in it might be essential in many cases, and I believe that one day maybe our concepts will change considering DNA, and computers as well.

well world…that’s it for now

I know that you might be curious about why and how will we do such thing

Don’t worry…I’ll answer you soon ISA…and you shall understand what we intend to do

just keep in touch

and wish us good luck