• A 6,000 ft² former office building in Carlsbad, CA has been leased for $1/year to serve as a DIY-bio lab; the city expects eight biotech startups to be housed there within a set timeframe, and the group is now exploring revenue models to cover utilities and equipment costs.

• Core project ideas floated for the space include “DIY human genetic engineering” via muscle electroporation with protein-expressing plasmids, whole-body electrophoresis, and a bottle-bioreactor for small-scale fermentation to avoid expensive centrifuges.

• Cory Tobin (LA Biohackers) described his ongoing work with Streptomyces thermoautotrophicus, a thermophilic bacterium that fixes N₂ in the presence of O₂ using a molybdenum-dinitrogenase coupled to a manganese-superoxide oxidoreductase; he has already sequenced the 78 % GC genome and is re-purifying the enzyme to verify earlier, controversial in-vitro results.

• The organism can grow chemolithoautotrophically on either CO (energy + carbon) or H₂ + CO₂ (energy + carbon via RuBisCO) at ~60 °C and 50 psi, requiring a high-pressure, explosive H₂/O₂ growth chamber—nicknamed “Project Hindenburg”—that is kept outdoors for safety.

• Discussion of sequencing strategy: initial Illumina run gave patchy 100× coverage; plans include deeper Illumina (hundreds of ×) plus possible 454/PacBio long reads to close gaps, with offers from channel members to re-assemble the reads using specialized high-GC tools.

• Funding prospects mentioned: Gates Foundation (one-to-two-page application), corporate speaking engagements where established researchers promote the lab in exchange for visibility, and renting bench space or teaching lab classes for local community colleges that lack their own facilities.

• Skepticism was voiced about the traditional biotech incubator model—fear that secrecy, IP concerns, and precise calibration needs would prevent equipment sharing and dilute the open, collaborative culture the group wants to foster.