Photosynthetic organisms use solar energy to generate high-energy electrons through their photosynthetic electron transport chains. Electrons from different photosynthetic electron transport chains can be rewired to new-to-nature pathways, enabling a biological approach to solar energy conversion for solar-powered electricity generation and chemical synthesis. See Joshua M. Lawrence et al.

This focus issue on the future of food highlights technological progress in engineered food, featuring genome-edited food, cultured (cell-based) meat, engineered microorganisms for food additive production, cellular agriculture for milk production, sustainable food packaging and robotics in food preparation, including a critical perspective of new food technologies in the context of costs, climate change, and the political and economic forces that shape agriculture and food production. See the future of food.

Mathematical models can make use of clinical data and incorporate knowledge of the underlying biological mechanisms of cancer growth and resistance to describe the response of tumour cells to cancer treatment and design treatment schedules that account for patient-specific responses. See Thomas O. McDonald et al.

Designing portable medical equipment and devices, such as portable low-field magnetic resonance imaging devices, can help address diagnostic and treatment challenges in low-resource settings, in which access to healthcare facilities and repair options are limited. See W. Taylor Kimberly et al.

Human-based in vitro models, such as organs-on-chips and organoids, can be engineered and customized for various tissues and pathophysiological conditions, and may replace certain animal models in preclinical research. The question remains how ‘human’ the model has to be to enable human disease modelling. See Anna Loewa et al.

Phase-separation of biomolecular condensates describes a new framework to understand cell physiology. Synthetic biomolecular condensates can be designed to spatiotemporally regulate cellular functions as a new tool in synthetic biology's arsenal. See Yifan Dai et al.

Neurological disorders or traumatic events that cause hand paralysis limit our ability to reach and manipulate objects with our hands. Neuroprosthetic technologies, and, in particular, ‘brain-to-body’ interfaces, may decode hand motor intent from brain signals and activate muscles accordingly, allowing voluntary control of movements while bypassing the neurological lesion. See Elena Losanno et al.

Plants are used as crops, sources of medicines, fragrances, flavours, engineering substrates for recombinant products and carbon sinks. However, population growth, climate change and diseases pose serious challenges to systems reliant on plants, including exacerbation of food insecurity owing to increased demand and falling yields. Nanomaterials can be designed for the genetic manipulation of plants to promote plant regeneration and transformation. See Henry J. Squire et al.

Less than 1% of the Earth’s freshwater is estimated to be accessible, and its contamination with plastic waste, heavy metals, organic pollutants, oil spills as well as bacterial and viral pathogens represents a severe ecological threat. Micro- and nanorobots can be designed to remove and degrade water contaminants to increase the accessibility of fresh and clean water around the globe. See Mario Urso et al.

Intraoperative fluorescent imaging enables real-time visualization of tumours and nearby healthy tissues, allowing high-precision tumour resection in oncological surgery. See Kun Wang et al.

Chirality is present across all size scales in nature, resulting in biological, chemical and physical properties that may be influenced by circularly polarized electromagnetic fields. The mechanisms underlying the generation of chirality in biology can inform the design of bioinspired chiral inorganic nanomaterials for a range of applications, including sensing, catalysis and biomedicine. See Nam Heon Cho et al

Welcome to the first issue of Nature Reviews Bioengineering, a new Nature Reviews journal covering all areas of bioengineering, with a particular focus on translation, inclusivity and accessibility. See Editorial