High-sensitive and high-speed identification of amino acids and peptides by combining Raman microscopy and deep learning

Amino acids and peptides are basic components of proteins and have vital importance in various biological functions and diseases. In this research, we have attempted to detect and distinguish 20 kinds of amino acids and 39 kinds of peptides without any labeling. By using Raman microscopy, more than two thousand Raman spectra were obtained within five minutes from each analyte, at femtomolecular levels. Furthermore, deep learning analyses of the spectra yielded accuracies greater than 96 percent in discriminating between the amino acids and the peptides.