- Andy Ellington’s lab is experimenting with emulsions, vesicles, or nanobeads to physically compartmentalize transcriptional-regulatory networks (TRNs), but the channel questions whether this membrane-based isolation is necessary or simply adds complexity, proposing instead surface-anchored localization plus noise-tolerance thresholds to achieve genotype-phenotype linkage without Brownian-motion crosstalk.  

- A “writozyme” concept is proposed: embed logic directly into selection experiments by letting aptamers feed back on transcriptional switches in real time, so the evolutionary run itself unfolds the desired program and eliminates slow inhibitor-based read-outs.  

- Participants argue that plummeting DNA-synthesis costs will soon let researchers order arbitrary sequences at will, generating empirical folding data that rapidly demystifies “how to make any protein structure” and bridges bottom-up synthetic biology with Drexlerian nanotechnology.  

- The group is prototyping SKDB, a Debian-inspired “apt-get for hardware and biology” that would let users fetch protocols, CAD files, wet-lab procedures, and their dependencies as easily as installing software packages, while debating whether GPL, MIT/BSD, or public-domain licenses can effectively enforce sharing of physical objects built from open-source plans.  

- A lightweight, self-explanatory semantic seed-ontology for tagging bio-protocols is offered, but the community insists it must evolve dynamically rather than freeze into rigid categories, and they consider nightly IRC lectures or automated Twitter scripts to keep the 150-member hplusroadmap mailing list engaged.  

- Key links circulated include kanzure’s cell-free translation lab notes (http://heybryan.org/mediawiki/index.php/2008-06-09), Winfree’s crosstalk notes (http://heybryan.org/winfree.html), a YouTube demo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXKbzbeipmI), Georgia Tech’s aggregated futurist roadmap, and Debian’s Social Contract as a governance model.