The human body is made up of trillions of cells, microscopic computers that carry out complex behaviors according to the signals they receive from each other and their environment. Synthetic biologists engineer living cells to control how they behave by converting their genes into programmable circuits. A new study published by Assistant Professor Wilson Wong (BME) in Nature Biotechnology outlines a new simplified platform to target and program mammalian cells as genetic circuits, even complex ones, more quickly and efficiently.