# Harvard Engineers Build a Silicon Chip That Writes DNA With Electricity and Water

*2026-07-09 10:01 UTC · Science · 1 min read*

> A Harvard-led team built a silicon chip that synthesizes 64 DNA sequences in parallel using electric currents and water-based enzymes, ditching the toxic solvents of conventional DNA manufacturing.

Harvard researchers led by professor Donhee Ham have built a silicon chip that synthesizes DNA using tiny electrical currents and water-based enzymes instead of the hazardous organic solvents conventional DNA manufacturing relies on.

The chip packs 64 synthesis sites, each ringed by concentric electrodes. Current pumped into the inner ring generates protons that lower the local pH just enough to trigger enzymatic DNA-building at that exact spot, while the outer ring pulls in stray protons to keep neighboring sites clean. Cycling this process let the team synthesize 64 distinct DNA sequences in parallel, each up to 39 nucleotides long — more than five times the roughly dozen sequences prior enzymatic chips could manage. As a demonstration, the sequences were used to encode a 169-byte piece of text.

The near-term payoff is cheaper, greener DNA synthesis for synthetic biology and diagnostics. Longer term, the researchers point to portable DNA-writing devices and DNA-based data storage, though scaling further will require new deprotection chemistry — the current bottleneck is the chemistry, not the silicon, according to the team.

## Sources

- [seas.harvard.edu](https://seas.harvard.edu/news/making-dna-semiconductor-chip)
- [sciencedaily.com](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/07/260708022202.htm)

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TechTools News · https://techtools.cz/tools/news/article/1974-harvard-engineers-build-a-silicon-chip-that-writes-dna-with-electricity-and
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