New preclinical studies report two distinct routes to improve chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) strategies. A Nature Chemical Biology paper shows that intracellular delivery of multivalent intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) induces protein condensation that amplifies CAR‑T cytotoxicity against low‑antigen tumors. The mechanism increases local receptor clustering to boost effector function. Separately, Heiss, Riise, Hanse and colleagues engineered CARs on microglia to enhance selective phagocytosis of amyloid‑beta (Aβ1‑42) in models of Alzheimer’s disease. Microglial CARs increased clearance of pathological peptides, demonstrating a cell‑therapy approach for neurodegenerative proteinopathies. Both advances expand the CAR toolbox: one improves potency against solid tumors with low target density, the other repurposes CAR technology for targeted innate immune clearance in the brain.