- A new paper on spiroligomer membranes (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ange.202302809) was discussed; the authors embed spiroligomers between two PES layers, cross-link them with TMC, and then separate the layers to create a distinct spiroligomer film for selective filtration of molecules such as ethyl vanillin.

- Participants debated whether ultra-cheap, gigabase-scale DNA synthesis would most impact large-scale screening of long enzymes, viral capsid libraries, novel transcription factors for cellular rejuvenation, or the creation of virus-resistant mammalian cell lines via codon recoding and removal of endogenous retroviruses.

- David Liu’s Phage-Assisted Continuous Evolution (PACE) system was highlighted as a rapid, hands-off directed-evolution platform that can achieve dozens of evolutionary rounds per day, although it was noted that PACE is technically demanding and its adoption has been limited.

- The “mini-symplastome” proposal from the Engineering Biology Center (https://engineeringbiologycenter.org/pilotprojects/) was introduced as a novel pilot project aimed at building minimal synthetic plastid genomes.

- DNA-templated organic synthesis (DTS) and light-directed, photoremovable protecting-group chemistries were reviewed as potential routes to high-precision, low-cost DNA synthesis; links to key papers on photogenerated acids and azobenzene-based reversible control were shared (https://diyhpl.us/~bryan/papers2/DNA/Photoremovable%20protecting%20groups%20in%20chemistry%20and%20biology%20-%20reaction%20mechanisms%20and%20efficiency.pdf).