This Review discusses genetic-engineering technologies for the rewiring of signalling networks in mammalian cells, including the recombination of native pathway components, cross-kingdom pathway transplantation and the development of de novo signalling.

This Perspective discusses the need for standards that allow for comparisons of quantitative physiological features in microphysiological systems and humans.

This Review discusses strategies for the design of cell–drug conjugates, the techniques for their preparation, and their translational applications, particularly for the treatment of cancers and autoimmune diseases.

This Perspective examines how metal ions modulate the immune system and host–microbiota interactions, and proposes strategies for the development of metal-ion-based immunotherapies.

Trans-splicing-based methods that are independent of bacterial sequences and that allow the incorporation of RNA modifications enable the reliable synthesis of circular RNAs and enhance the efficiency of rolling circle translation.

Branched organoids embedded in collagen gels can recapitulate the phenotypic landscape and pronounced molecular and morphological heterogeneity of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

ChatGPT can be leveraged to generate informative embeddings of genes and single cells.

An analysis of the localization and intensity of intracortical microstimulation in three participants with cervical spinal cord injury shows that overlapping projected fields from multiple electrodes produce sensations that are more easily localizable.

A convolutional neural network that maps electrical signals from a brain–computer interface to neural features improved the performance of three participants with tetraplegia on a cursor-control task.

A foundation model for the motion correction, resolution enhancement, denoising and harmonization of magnetic resonance images improves the performance of machine-learning models across a wide range of tasks.

More off-the-beaten-track strategies are needed for enhancing the accumulation of drugs at target sites, for improving the drugs’ cell-type specificity and for reducing their off-target toxicity.

Proteins that tag surface receptors for degradation by triggering their endocytosis can be computationally designed so that they do not compete with native receptor ligands for binding.

DNA microbeads loaded with an agonist for Wnt and injected into retinal organoids allow for the spatiotemporal control of gradients of the morphogen to better direct organoid development and maturation.

A biomarker in retinal images identified by a deep-learning algorithm can predict biological age as well as mortality and morbidity.

A water-soluble dye that absorbs blue light strongly makes it easier to turn mice transparent.

Stress-sensitive neural circuitry affects immunity via the gut microbiome.