• A CRISPR germline edit that disrupts sex-chromosome twisting was proposed as a way to skew human births toward (phenotypic) females only, sparking discussion about the commercial viability of the inverse scenario.

• ShadowMaps, a GPS-free positioning system that exploits multipath Wi-Fi and cellular reflections, was introduced via a UCSB paper (http://insidegnss.com/auto/sepoct15-MADHOW_0.pdf) as a potential indoor/outdoor navigation alternative.

• MIT’s 2017 iGEM project demonstrated dCas13a fused to MS2 aptamers for programmable, RNA-level control of alternative splicing, offering a modular way to redirect gene expression without DNA edits.

• Northwestern’s 2017 iGEM team engineered antibiotic-resistant pathogens to uptake Cas9 via sub-micron bacterial outer-membrane vesicles (OMVs), creating a “Trojan-horse” re-sensitization therapy that restores antibiotic efficacy.

• UIUC Illinois iGEM entry detailed an ultra-low-cost Gibson assembly protocol, cutting reagent costs for seamless DNA assembly to enable distributed, garage-level synthetic-biology workflows.

• Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM project presented a tunable plasmid system to control copy-number variation (CNV) in engineered microbes, addressing instability issues that plague high-yield bioproduction.

• Wageningen UR iGEM team developed a rapid blood-bacterial co-culture assay that directly detects pathogen antigens, shortening diagnostic turnaround in sepsis-like scenarios.

• Waterloo iGEM showed yeast can be programmed to produce proteins that form prion-like aggregates, laying groundwork for self-assembling biomaterials or controllable inclusion-body factories.

• Channel members began systematically archiving chemistry- and bio-oriented YouTube channels before takedowns, and proposed grepping the #hplusroadmap logs for all previously shared video links to preserve content.

• A microfluidics-focused video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRBQv2TJFX4) was circulated as a practical fabrication resource for lab-on-chip and point-of-care diagnostic prototyping.