Novel Technology of Data Storage Using Peptides

With the huge amount of digital data generated and recorded in this digital era, the data storage devices we currently use reveal great limitations in terms of their data storage capacity and the durability of the retained data. To meet this challenge, a novel technology for massive data management involving the use of peptides has been developed to optimise data storage.

Compared with existing commercial data storage devices and technologies, peptides offer a much higher storage density and longer storage duration – with the data still viable for sequencing even after millions of years. The process of sequencing thousands of peptides in a mixture can be completed within a short period of time, therefore data retrieval would not take very long.

This technology has potentially wide applications. For example, this technology can archive all the books in a library or all experimental data in a research institution and store for very long time. It may also be used in steganography and cryptography data storage, and storing the information in peptide barcode.  As such, it could benefit governmental agencies and corporations that generate and archive large volumes of big data.

This technology can also be applied in space exploration missions, for example, in China’s manned spacecraft missions, where physical space is limited and a lot of data is generated. The reliability and stability of the peptides for data storage and retrieval after exposure to the space environment has been demonstrated feasibility in space ride-share experiment in the Long March-5B rocket.