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Shape of the data. Scientists try to discover patterns in their data and to interpret them in the context of biological knowledge. Sometimes the observed patterns are shaped by unknown factors, and recovering the underlying biological signals is challenging. In this issue, it has been shown how cellular compositional effects can shape the observed clusters of gene coexpression. While interpretable and reproducible, these patterns can overwrite the potential underlying biological signals, making them more challenging to discover. (Cover artwork by Marjan Farahbod; background color and texture from original work by Bangsal Nam, unsplash.com. [For details, see Farahbod and Pavlidis, pp. 849–859.])