The present invention provides programmable universal cell receptors (PUCRs) comprising a catalytic antibody region, a transmembrane domain and a cytoplasmic domain. The PUCRs disclosed herein may be conjugated to a specificity agent in order to program the receptor for specificity to any molecule of interest. Also provided are nucleic acids encoding such PUCRs, and cells expressing the PUCRs. Such cells may be used in treating a variety of medical conditions and diseases including cancer and infectious diseases.
