# Key Points from the IRC Discussion

• The Open Artificial Pancreas Project (OpenAPS) was discussed as an open-source initiative for diabetes management, highlighting community efforts to develop automated insulin delivery systems outside traditional medical device companies.

• Participants explored communication methods for nanoscale devices, particularly retroreflector modulation which can achieve 10 kbps data rates while using minimal power, relevant for implantable or microscopic biosensors.

• The conversation covered advanced molecular biology techniques including SELEX (Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment) for producing target-binding oligonucleotides, and FISSEQ (Fluorescent in situ sequencing) for tissue imaging.

• Several papers on photoswitchable proteins and amino acids were shared, demonstrating methods to control protein function with visible light rather than UV light, which has important implications for optogenetics and biological control systems.

• There was significant discussion about RNA polymerases and ribozyme evolution, focusing on catalytic RNA molecules that can facilitate nucleotide addition based on RNA templates.

• Participants expressed frustration about the lack of open-source continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems and biosensor projects, indicating a gap in the biohacking community that needs to be addressed.

• The conversation touched on educational pathways for artificial general intelligence research, suggesting computational neuroscience, physics, mathematics, and computer science as relevant fields of study.