ToMMo’s Demo of World’s First Quantum Cryptography Transmission of Whole-Genome Sequence Data a Milestone

(InsideHPCWire) Tohoku University Medical Megabank Organisation (ToMMo) has demonstrated the world’s first quantum cryptography transmission of whole-genome sequence data in collaboration with Toshiba. The transmission exceeded several hundred gigabytes demonstrating that quantum encryption technology is now capable of large-capacity data transmission, opening up practical applications in genomic medicine and research.
In the case of simultaneous analysis of multiple individuals, next-generation sequencers output more than several hundred gigabytes of data at a time. Storing and transporting such large amounts of confidential data requires very high-level security. Genome researchers have always been annoyed about the security of transferring large-scale genome sequence data, they sometimes physically transport hard disks in locked security boxes, which is problematic in terms of cost and time.
ToMMo developed a system for sequential encryption and transmission of large-scale data, thereby realizing real-time transmission of whole-genome sequence data with the one-time pad method. One-time pad is an encryption technique that requires the use of a one-time pre-shared key the same size as, or longer than, the message being sent.