Reading Information Stored in Synthetic Macromolecules.

Area of Science:

• Molecular engineering
• Data storage technologies
• Biotechnology

Background:

• Synthetic macromolecules are emerging as a viable alternative to traditional archival storage media.
• Advances in molecular information storage have opened avenues for applications like anti-counterfeiting and steganography.

Purpose of the Study:

• To critically review prominent strategies for retrieving information encoded in synthetic macromolecules.
• To discuss recent progress in using small molecules for data storage.
• To identify optimal strategies for specific applications and outline future research directions.

Main Methods:

• Focus on sequence determination of synthetic macromolecules where information is stored via monomer arrangement.
• Emphasis on chemically aided strategies, tandem mass spectrometry, and nanopore sensing.
• Discussion of recent progress in utilizing small molecules for information storage.

Main Results:

• Overview of prominent molecular information retrieval strategies.
• Detailed examination of sequence determination techniques for macromolecules.
• Exploration of small molecule-based information storage.

Conclusions:

• Highlighting the most suitable retrieval strategies for specific applications.
• Identifying key challenges and future research avenues in reading macromolecular information.
• Synthetic molecule-based information storage presents a promising frontier.