Image depicts bacterial fragments being pieced together to form whole genomes. Bishara et al. report an approach that assembles short barcoded reads and generates high-quality draft microbial genomes (p 1067). Image credit: Ryan Charles Leung Brewster and Eli L. Moss. Credit corrected online 15 November 2018.

Image of the electrical activity from a brain connectome being fed into a computer circuit. Sani et al. show that machine learning algorithms can predict changes in mood by analyzing neural recordings from epilepsy patients (p 954). Image credit: Ella Maru Studio; Omid Sani, Yuxiao Yang and Maryam Shanechi

Image from the video game EVE Online with a background of fluorescently labeled cells. Sullivan et al. report how the analysis of large-scale imaging experiments was facilitated by incorporating an image classification task as a minigame in this mainstream massively multiplayer online game and by intergrating the player annotations with deep learning approaches (p 820). Image credit: Sölvi Hrafn Ingimundarson (CCP games) and the Human Protein Atlas

An illustration of a tumor surrounded by T cells bearing cytokine 'backpacks'. The cytokine-delivery system developed by Tang et al. releases cytokines specifically at the tumor after T cells recognize a tumor antigen (p 707). Image credit: Yutao Dong

Artistic representation of the kit of parts or building a do-it-yourself automated cell culturing system. Wong et al. design and build a framework that enables high-throughput experiments in systems biology, microbiology and evolution (p 614). Image credit: Katie M. Flynn and Ahmad (Mo) Khalil

An artist's representation of a light-dependent protocell. Lee et al. use switchable photosynthetic organelles to control ATP synthesis and ATP-coupled reactions inside a giant lipid vesicle (p 530). Image credit: Michael Rosnach

Artist's impression of how deep learning accelerates super resolution microscopy. Ouyang et al. present a computational approach that uses artificial neural networks to reconstruct super-resolution images from noisy images recorded at high speed with single-molecule localization microscopy (p. 460). Image credit: Wei Ouyang and Xiangping Li

A light micrograph showing the layered structure of the retina. da Cruz et al. transplant a patch of retinal pigment epithelium derived from human embryonic stem cells into the eyes of two individuals with age-related macular degeneration (p 328). Credit: Alvin Telser/Science Photo Library

A high-definition music video is encoded and stored in DNA. Organick et al. store over 200 MB of information in DNA and develop an error-free approach to randomly access and recover individual files (p 242). Image credit: Red Door Collaborative

Electron microscopy of T cells on a fluid lipid bilayer, supported by mesoporous silica micro-rods (pseudocolored). Cheung et al. show that this scaffold can be used to mimic antigen presentation to T cells, improving the outcome of T-cell expansion for adoptive cellular therapies (p 160). Image credit: Alexander Cheung, Sandeep Koshy and David Zhang.

A pseudocolored scanning electron microscopy image of nanobeads carrying VSVG-pseudotyped lenti viruses. Schubert et al. report a method to target single cells in live animals for viral transduction by guiding the magnetic beads to a cell in the mouse brain using an electromagnetic field (p 81). Image credit: G. Morison and R. Schubert, ETH Zürich, for SEM imaging and M. Oeggeli, Micronaut, for coloring.