A team of Brown University researchers has made substantial progress in an effort to create a new type of molecular data storage system.
A team of Brown University researchers has made substantial progress in an effort to create a new type of molecular data storage system.
In a study published in Nature Communications, the team stored a variety of image files — a Picasso drawing, an image of the Egyptian god Anubis and others — in arrays of mixtures containing custom-synthesized small molecules. In all, the researchers stored more than 200 kilobytes of data, which they say is the most stored to date using small molecules. That’s not a lot of data compared to traditional means of storage, but it is significant progress in terms of small molecule storage, the researchers say.
“I think this is a substantial step forward,” said Jacob Rosenstein, an assistant professor in Brown’s School of Engineering and an author of the study. “The large numbers of unique small molecules, the amount of data we can store, and the reliability of the data readout shows real promise for scaling this up even further.”
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Image Credit: Brown University
