- A newly released PLOS Biology paper catalogs small-molecule modulators of neural-stem-cell lineages in the subventricular zone; two compounds—AR-A014418 (GSK3β inhibitor, rejuvenates NSCs) and LY-294002 (PI3K/Akt inhibitor, drives oligodendrocyte production)—were validated in a mouse hypoxic-brain-injury model, showing cortical regeneration of oligodendrocytes and glutamatergic neurons.  
- Addgene announced plasmids from the Nagai Lab encoding a genetically encoded ratiometric fluorescent thermometer for real-time intracellular temperature mapping.  
- Discussion framed “actual rejuvenation” as the reversal—not mere slowing—of aging, citing heterochronic transplantation, parabiosis, Yamanaka-factor reprogramming, and young-blood plasma studies as evidence that aging is a loss of epigenetic information rather than irreparable damage.  
- A long technical thread explored iterative, in vitro DNA error-correction schemes: using Cas9, TALENs, recombinases, or zinc-finger fusions to perform stepwise decoding of chemically synthesized DNA, with each enzymatic round converting a fraction of an error-correcting code into the intended sequence while avoiding full in-cell translation.  
- The same thread proposed engineering polymerase-like ribosomes that read mRNA to synthesize DNA rather than protein, inserting “nop” nucleotides between codons to eliminate frameshift errors.  
- Participants noted that zinc-finger recombinase (ZFR) fusions already achieve targeted plasmid integration in human cells without double-strand breaks; the recombinase domain is engineered to be catalytically silent unless tethered by the zinc-finger domain, yielding far lower off-target integration than transposase or integrase fusions.  
- A call was made for an open “DNA string-manipulation toolbox”: modular enzyme parts (add, delete, insert) with exchangeable targeting domains (zinc finger, TALE, etc.) that recognize user-defined patterns or unnatural nucleotides, enabling programmable genome editing pipelines.  
- Concerns were raised about the practicality of such enzymatic schemes—error rates and yields of each enzymatic step may exceed those of state-of-the-art chemical DNA synthesis, undermining the net benefit.