• A new CRISPR “base-editing” system that couples Cas9 to cytidine deaminase enables programmable C→T or G→A substitutions without double-strand breaks, with a linked Harvard PDF and a Chinese study demonstrating correction of the β-thalassemia mutation in human embryos.  
• High-resolution brain mapping advances were showcased: whole-brain vasculature imaging at single-capillary resolution (biorxiv 191502) and CoLSSEM, a correlated-light/serial-scanning-EM pipeline that fuses CAAX-Venus-APEX2 labeling with ATUM-SEM to trace single-neuron morphology and synapses in vivo.  
• DNA data-storage architectures were explored, including nanopore “tape drives” that use long barcoded ssDNA, PCR retrieval, and in-pore electrochemical editing via femto- to atto-amp currents, plus a dual-pore error-correction scheme and methods for synthesizing 100 kbp repeating ssDNA via rolling-circle amplification.  
• Programmable epigenome engineering tools were surveyed: dCas9 fused to p300 acetyltransferase, DNMT3A methyltransferase, TET1 demethylase, and SunTag arrays for drug- or light-inducible gene control, alongside RNA-editing ADAR fusions for A-to-I transcript editing without DNA cleavage.  
• Cell-free TX-TL systems (freeze-dried circuits on paper) and complete in-vitro T7 phage assembly (~40 kbp) were highlighted as rapid prototyping platforms, while open plasmids for LOV photoreceptor domains were offered to make “any” protein light-switchable.