R&D: Data Storage Using Peptide Sequences

Nature Communications has published an article written by Cheuk Chi A. Ng, State Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, Research Institute for Future Food and Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China, and State Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine and Molecular Pharmacology (Incubation) and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Food Biological Safety Control, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Shenzhen Research Institute, Shenzhen, China, Wai Man Tam, Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China, Haidi Yin, Qian Wu, State Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, Research Institute for Future Food and Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China, and State Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine and Molecular Pharmacology (Incubation) and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Food Biological Safety Control, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Shenzhen Research Institute, Shenzhen, China, Pui-Kin So, University Research Facility in Life Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China, Melody Yee-Man Wong, University Research Facility in Chemical and Environmental Analysis, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China, Francis C. M. Lau, Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China, and Zhong-Ping Yao, State Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, Research Institute for Future Food and Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China, and State Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine and Molecular Pharmacology (Incubation) and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Food Biological Safety Control, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Shenzhen Research Institute, Shenzhen, China.

Abstract: “Humankind is generating digital data at an exponential rate. These data are typically stored using electronic, magnetic or optical devices, which require large physical spaces and cannot last for a very long time. Here we report the use of peptide sequences for data storage, which can be durable and of high storage density. With the selection of suitable constitutive amino acids, designs of address codes and error-correction schemes to protect the order and integrity of the stored data, optimization of the analytical protocol and development of a software to effectively recover peptide sequences from the tandem mass spectra, we demonstrated the feasibility of this method by successfully storing and retrieving a text file and the music file Silent Night with 40 and 511 18-mer peptides respectively. This method for the first time links data storage with the peptide synthesis industry and proteomics techniques, and is expected to stimulate the development of relevant fields.“