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                                           BIOINFORMATICS COLLOQUIUM
					       College of Science
                                            George Mason University
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					   DOTS: DNA Order Tracking System
 
				
						   James Diggans
											
						 Mitre Corporation

Abstract:

The ability to construct gene- and genome-length DNA fragments from scratch is a rapidly developing 
technology in the field of synthetic biology. Existing efforts to screen DNA synthesis orders rely 
solely upon direct alignment of ordered sequence to threat agents. Our approach assumes intent to 
obfuscate on the part of the ordering entity. We hypothesize that any truly valuable screening 
method will have to collate and analyze orders over time to determine relationships between orders 
and overall correspondence to threat agent sequence. A system capable of monitoring incoming DNA 
synthesis requests and identifying hazardous DNA sequences, ordered whole or in parts and spanning 
multiple vendor companies, time frames and points of origin, can be built around existing techniques 
utilized for sequence alignment and shotgun genome assembly.