A Nature Biotechnology study described a new sequencing method that maps RNA isoforms across brain cells with single-cell precision, targeting the long-standing challenge that the same gene can produce multiple isoforms with distinct functions. By profiling isoforms at cellular resolution, the method aims to improve how researchers connect transcript structure to cell-state biology. Separately, a study from researchers at Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center introduced MDRi, a computational framework that maps how tumor-infiltrating myeloid cells shift functional identities across cancer types. The index goes beyond abundance counts by characterizing “damage response” states. Together, the updates highlight how the next wave of precision tools is moving from measuring expression levels to measuring functional biology—isoform structure and immune identity states. For translational teams, these datasets and indices can strengthen target discovery and patient stratification, particularly in heterogeneous tissues like the brain and tumors.