• A Cell paper (http://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(17)30246-5) describing a modified FOXO4-p53 peptide that selectively triggers apoptosis in senescent cells (TASC) was highlighted; treated fast- and naturally-aged mice showed restored renal function, hair density and overall fitness, though participants noted the study used small cohorts.

• Channel members discussed the need for more clinical data on autologous stem-cell injections for joint repair and recalled that the fightaging.org community had been involved in setting up stem-cell clinics.

• A pre-print (http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/03/24/120386) mapping neuron- and region-specific DNA-methylation and chromatin-accessibility patterns across prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate gyrus, hippocampus and nucleus accumbens was shared, revealing large non-overlapping differences that correlate with neuropsychiatric-disease heritability.

• A PLOS Biology paper (http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2001413) presenting open-source Lego-based liquid-handling robots designed for low-cost STEM education and research-grade experimentation was circulated.

• The curated “genetic modifications” wiki (http://diyhpl.us/wiki/genetic-modifications/) was offered as a reference list of useful human mutations for prospective bio-hackers.

• A brief side-thread celebrated the 2009 discovery of the 3-D Mandelbulb (http://www.skytopia.com/project/fractal/mandelbulb.html) as a non-trivial extension of the classic 2-D Mandelbrot set into higher-dimensional fractal geometry.

• An announcement circulated that Russell from BrainBackups gave a “super-secret” talk on brain preservation and mind uploading at an Alcor NYC event held in the Empire State Building.