Crystal structure of the human beta2 adrenergic G-protein-coupled receptor

Structural analysis of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) for hormones and neurotransmitters has been hindered by their low natural abundance, inherent structural flexibility, and instability in detergent solutions. Here we report a structure of the human beta2 adrenoceptor (beta2AR), which was crystallized in a lipid environment when bound to an inverse agonist and in complex with a Fab that binds to the third intracellular loop. Diffraction data were obtained by high-brilliance microcrystallography and the structure determined at 3.4 A/3.7 A resolution. The cytoplasmic ends of the beta2AR transmembrane segments and the connecting loops are well resolved, whereas the extracellular regions of the beta2AR are not seen. The beta2AR structure differs from rhodopsin in having weaker interactions between the cytoplasmic ends of transmembrane (TM)3 and TM6, involving the conserved E/DRY sequences. These differences may be responsible for the relatively high basal activity and structural instability of the beta2AR, and contribute to the challenges in obtaining diffraction-quality crystals of non-rhodopsin GPCRs.     

A 160-kilobit molecular electronic memory patterned at 10(11) bits per square centimetre

The primary metric for gauging progress in the various semiconductor integrated circuit technologies is the spacing, or pitch, between the most closely spaced wires within a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) circuit. Modern DRAM circuits have 140 nm pitch wires and a memory cell size of 0.0408 mum(2). Improving integrated circuit technology will require that these dimensions decrease over time. However, at present a large fraction of the patterning and materials requirements that we expect to need for the construction of new integrated circuit technologies in 2013 have 'no known solution'. Promising ingredients for advances in integrated circuit technology are nanowires, molecular electronics and defect-tolerant architectures, as demonstrated by reports of single devices and small circuits. Methods of extending these approaches to large-scale, high-density circuitry are largely undeveloped. Here we describe a 160,000-bit molecular electronic memory circuit, fabricated at a density of 10(11) bits cm(-2) (pitch 33 nm; memory cell size 0.0011 microm2), that is, roughly analogous to the dimensions of a DRAM circuit projected to be available by 2020. A monolayer of bistable, [2]rotaxane molecules served as the data storage elements. Although the circuit has large numbers of defects, those defects could be readily identified through electronic testing and isolated using software coding. The working bits were then configured to form a fully functional random access memory circuit for storing and retrieving information.     

Aberrant methylation of donor genome in cloned bovine embryos

Despite recent successes in cloning various animal species, the use of somatic cells as the source of donor nuclei has raised many practically relevant questions such as increased abortion rates, high birth weight and perinatal death. These anomalies may be caused by incomplete epigenetic reprogramming of donor DNA. Genome-wide demethylation occurs during early development, 'erasing' gamete-specific methylation patterns inherited from the parents. This process may be a prerequisite for the formation of pluripotent stem cells that are important for the later development. Here, we provide evidence that cloned bovine embryos may have impaired epigenetic reprogramming capabilities. We found highly aberrant methylation patterns in various genomic regions of cloned embryos. Cloned blastocysts closely resembled donor cells in their overall genomic methylation status, which was very different from that of normal blastocysts produced in vitro or in vivo. We found demethylation of the Bov-B long interspersed nuclear element sequence in normal embryos, but not in cloned embryos, in which the donor-type methylation was simply maintained during preimplantation development. There were also significant variations in the degree of methylation among individual cloned blastocysts. Our findings indicate that the developmental anomalies of cloned embryos could be due to incomplete epigenetic reprogramming of donor genomic DNA.     

Entanglement of spin waves among four quantum memories

Quantum networks are composed of quantum nodes that interact coherently through quantum channels, and open a broad frontier of scientific opportunities. For example, a quantum network can serve as a 'web' for connecting quantum processors for computation and communication, or as a 'simulator' allowing investigations of quantum critical phenomena arising from interactions among the nodes mediated by the channels. The physical realization of quantum networks generically requires dynamical systems capable of generating and storing entangled states among multiple quantum memories, and efficiently transferring stored entanglement into quantum channels for distribution across the network. Although such capabilities have been demonstrated for diverse bipartite systems, entangled states have not been achieved for interconnects capable of 'mapping' multipartite entanglement stored in quantum memories to quantum channels. Here we demonstrate measurement-induced entanglement stored in four atomic memories; user-controlled, coherent transfer of the atomic entanglement to four photonic channels; and characterization of the full quadripartite entanglement using quantum uncertainty relations. Our work therefore constitutes an advance in the distribution of multipartite entanglement across quantum networks. We also show that our entanglement verification method is suitable for studying the entanglement order of condensed-matter systems in thermal equilibrium.