# Summary of #hplusroadmap IRC Log (July 22, 2012)

• A discussion of Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) was shared, noting the interesting valuation method where 25-year-olds are valued most highly in health economics calculations.

• Nanotube printed micro circuits and automated deposition techniques for chip manufacturing were briefly discussed as emerging technologies.

• A Boston Globe article about Gen9, a custom DNA maker potentially becoming "the Intel of biotech revolution," was shared, prompting discussion about the market for synthetic DNA and its applications in troubleshooting working organisms.

• Microfluidic 3D modeling tools were discussed, with mentions that industry professionals typically use AutoCAD, while some prefer SVG or SketchUp for designing microfluidic systems.

• An article about 3D printing pharmaceuticals at home sparked discussion about the complexity of drug synthesis, with clarification that while complex biologics like interferon are difficult to synthesize, many small-molecule drugs follow Lipinski's Rule of Five and are relatively simple to produce.

• Genomic data compression was explored, including the possibility of using Fourier transforms and representing nucleotides (ACTG) as 2-bit values (00, 01, 10, 11), with suggestions to study existing compression algorithms like LZMA before attempting to create specialized genomic compression tools.