The cell surface serves important functions such as the regulation of cell-cell and cell-environment interactions. The understanding and manipulation of the cell surface is important for a wide range of fundamental studies of cellular behavior and for biotechnological and medical applications. With the rapid advance of biology, chemistry and materials science, many strategies have been developed for the functionalization of bacterial and mammalian cell surfaces. Here, we review the recent development of chemical and enzymatic approaches to cell surface engineering with particular emphasis on discussing the advantages and limitations of each of these strategies.

Cell surfaces mediate crucial functions in cell–cell and cell–environment interactions. Compared with the traditional cell‐surface display technology using genetic engineering, chemical and enzymatic methods for cell surface modification have certain distinct advantages. The ability to redecorate the bacterial or mammalian cell surface with a wide range of unnatural functional molecules makes them great enabling tools in the study of cell behaviors and for the development of novel cell‐based therapeutics. Read more in the Minireview by Liu et al. on page 8042 ff.