Modular Nucleic Acid Scaffolds for Synthesizing Monodisperse and Sequence-Encoded Antibody Oligomers.

Synthesizing protein oligomers that contain exact numbers of multiple different proteins in defined architectures is challenging. DNA-DNA interactions can be used to program protein assembly into oligomers; however, existing methods require changes to DNA design to achieve different numbers and oligomeric sequences of proteins. Herein, we develop a modular DNA scaffold that uses only six synthetic oligonucleotides to organize proteins into defined oligomers. As a proof-of-concept, model proteins (antibodies) are oligomerized into dimers and trimers, where antibody function is retained. Illustrating the modularity of this technique, dimer and trimer building blocks are then assembled into pentamers containing three different antibodies in an exact stoichiometry and oligomeric sequence. In sum, this report describes a generalizable method for organizing proteins into monodisperse, sequence-encoded oligomers using DNA. This advance will enable studies into how oligomeric protein sequences affect material properties in areas spanning pharmaceutical development, cascade catalysis, synthetic photosynthesis, and membrane transport

A search for technosignatures from 14 planetary systems in the Kepler field with the Green Bank Telescope at 1.15-1.73 GHz

Analysis of Kepler mission data suggests that the Milky Way includes billions of Earth-like planets in the habitable zone of their host star. Current technology enables the detection of technosignatures emitted from a large fraction of the Galaxy. We describe a search for technosignatures that is sensitive to Arecibo-class transmitters located within ~420 ly of Earth and transmitters that are 1000 times more effective than Arecibo within ~13 000 ly of Earth. Our observations focused on 14 planetary systems in the Kepler field and used the L-band receiver (1.15-1.73 GHz) of the 100 m diameter Green Bank Telescope. Each source was observed for a total integration time of 5 minutes. We obtained power spectra at a frequency resolution of 3 Hz and examined narrowband signals with Doppler drift rates between +/-9 Hz/s. We flagged any detection with a signal-to-noise ratio in excess of 10 as a candidate signal and identified approximately 850 000 candidates. Most (99%) of these candidate signals were automatically classified as human-generated radio-frequency interference (RFI). A large fraction (>99%) of the remaining candidate signals were also flagged as anthropogenic RFI because they have frequencies that overlap those used by global navigation satellite systems, satellite downlinks, or other interferers detected in heavily polluted regions of the spectrum. All 19 remaining candidate signals were scrutinized and none were attributable to an extraterrestrial source.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

Redox enhanced energy storage in an aqueous high-voltage electrochemical capacitor with a potassium bromide electrolyte

This paper reports a detailed electrochemical investigation of a symmetric carbon-carbon electrochemical device with a potassium bromide (KBr) electrolyte. Below 1.6 V, KBr gives electrochemical double layer behavior. At higher voltages the Br-/Br-3 redox reaction comes into effect and enhances the energy storage. The redox-enhanced device has a high energy density, excellent stability, as well as high coulombic and energy efficiencies even at 1.9 V. More importantly, the redox contribution can be “triggered” by pre-cycling at 1.9 V, and remains beneficial after switching to 1.6 V. The triggering operation leads to a 22% increase in stored energy with negligible sacrifice of power. The intriguing behavior is accompanied by a series of complex variations including the shifts of electrode potential limits and the shift of potential of zero voltage. The electro-oxidation of the positive electrode and kinetics of the Br-/Br-3 electrode reactions are proposed to be the main causes for the triggering phenomenon. These findings provide means to improve the design and operation of devices that contain bromine, or other redox species with a comparably high electrode potential