TECHNICAL SEMINAR

PROTEIN BASED OPTICAL STORAGE

Amarnath.G.S
Introduction
 The magnetic spots in disk storage are already
smaller than semiconductor feature sizes, and
patterned media and heat-assisted recording will
give us 10 TB 2.5″ disks in the next decade. But
then what? Optical protein-based quantum dots
could be the answer.
Contd..
 the speed of integrated circuit random access
memory (RAM) has increased steadily over the past
ten to fifteen years, the limits of these systems are
rapidly approaching. In response to the rapidly
changing face of computing and demand for
physically smaller, greater capacity, bandwidth a
number of alternative methods to integrated circuit
information storage have surfaced recently. Among
the most promising of the new alternatives are ????
Protein source
 The star at the centre of the high-capacity DVD is a
light-activated protein found in the membrane of a
salt marsh microbe Halobacterium salinarum.
 The protein, called bacteriorhodopsin (bR),
captures and stores sunlight to convert it to
chemical energy.
Fig.1
Fig.1
 These membrane proteins are being used to generate
the first protein-based information storage system to
store terabytes of information (Image: V
Renugopalakrishnan)

But Renugopalakrishnan and colleagues modified the

DNA that makes bR protein to produce an
intermediate that lasts for more than several years,
which paves the way for a binary system to store data.
Storage terms(1/0)
Used in ..
 Protein patterning on solid surfaces is a topic of
significant importance in the fields of biosensors,
diagnostic assays, cell adhesion technologies, and
biochip microarrays.
Advantages
 Renugopalakrishnan says the new protein-based
DVD will have advantages over current optical
storage devices (such as the Blue-ray).

It will be able to store at least 20 times more than

the Blue-ray and eventually even up to 50,000
gigabytes (about 50 terabytes) of information, he
says
Disadvantages
 Renugopalakrishnan says making large amounts of information so portable
on high-capacity removable storage devices will make it easier for
information to fall into the wrong hands.

"Unfortunately science can be used and abused. Information can be stolen

very quickly," he says. "One has to have some safeguards there."

In conjunction with NEC in Japan, Renugopalakrishnan's team has produced

a prototype device and estimate a USB disk will be commercialized in 12
months and a DVD in 18 to 24 months.

The work has been funded by a range of US military, government, academic

institutions and commercial companies, as well as the European Union.
…THANK YOU…