As the final collection of articles celebrating ten years of publication of Nature Chemical Biology, this issue explores a snapshot of the countless frontiers within the field of chemical biology. Like the new stars of the Milky Way Galaxy's Arches cluster observed by the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based telescopes and depicted on the cover, the field of chemical biology is young and ripe for expansion and exploration. Image credit: NASA, ESA and A. Schaller (for STScI).

There are a number of drugs in use that are effective against strains of the human pathogen methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA (cells are shown on the cover), but considerations such as antibiotic resistance and cost have highlighted the need for new drugs as well as new therapeutic combinations. Gonzales et al. now show that triple combinations of the clinically useful and proven antibiotics meropenem, piperacillin and tazobactam are synergistic against MRSA through a mechanism involving allostery-based synergy and collateral sensitivity, and can thus be applied at low doses, leading to less resistance. Cover art by Erin Dewalt, based on artwork from Gautam Dantas. Article, p855; News & Views p832

Enzymes are increasingly important in industrial-scale chemical transformations, but identifying or engineering an enzyme that displays the desired function is not always possible. Selecting monobodies (yellow ovals) that sterically block the extended binding site of a galactosidase (gray oblong shapes) provides an alternative strategy to control the specificity of oligosaccharide products (grey and pink circles) without altering the galactosidase directly. Cover art by Erin Dewalt based on an image from Yoko Koide. Brief Communication, p762

Natural products play critical roles in chemical ecology, cell biology and modern medicine. This importance, along with simple scientific curiosity, has inspired broad efforts to delineate, reengineer and decipher the functional importance of the biosynthetic pathways that construct these molecules. In this image, drying pasta pays homage to the 'spaghetti diagrams,' or biosynthetic schemes in which growing peptide or polyketide chains 'hang' from a series of modular domains, typical of studies in the field. Cover art by Erin Dewalt, based on an image from Jupiterimages/Stockbyte/Thinkstock.

A single-molecule approach using magnetic tweezers shows that DNA strand separation alone can trigger a lock at Tus–Ter sites where oppositely moving replisomes on circular bacterial chromosomes must avoid crashing. The results support a 'mousetrap' model in which replication-related proteins are not necessary and strand separation is followed by an interaction between Tus and C6 of the Ter site that sets up a hierarchy of interactions to allow the Tus–Ter complex to progressively strengthen. Cover art by Erin Dewalt, based on an image provided by TU Delft/Tremani. Article, p579; News & Views, p550

Squid beak is a model system for biomaterials, displaying a 200-fold stiffness gradient from base to tip and constructed only from organic materials. A combination of 'omics and biophysical analyses now identifies two families of proteins that contribute to this stiffness via chitin binding and diffusion into the chitin matrix. This image by Kimberly Tolleson shows an artistic representation of the jumbo squid in its natural habitat. Cover art by Erin Dewalt. Article, p488; News & Views, p455

With the June 2015 issue, Nature Chemical Biology celebrates 10 years of serving the chemical biology community through the publication of leading research and commentary at the interface of chemistry and biology. The cover features art created by Mary O'Reilly, the winner of our "10th Anniversary Cover Art Competition," and shows a bursting piñata revealing the molecular bounty of chemical biology. Art direction by Erin Dewalt.

Spider silk is strong, flexible and biodegradable, making it an ideal biomaterial for a variety of medical applications. However, artificial processes to produce silk do not reliably capture the unique properties of these materials. Recent research has led to an improved understanding of the natural processes involved in spinning silk, pointing toward new strategies for biomimetic preparation. Cover art by Erin Dewalt, based on imagery from Lena Holm. Perspective, p309

The mechanisms by which plants dissipate excess energy in photosynthetic antennae have remained unclear. New research on an antenna-like protein purified from the cyanobacterium Synechocystis PCC 6803 provides evidence that the energy absorbed by chlorophylls is dissipated via its direct transfer to the S1 energy state of β-carotene. Cover art by Erin Dewalt, based on an electron micrograph image of Synechocystis PCC 6803 provided by Lenka Bučinská. Article, p287

Ras GTPases are lipid-anchored G-protein switches that trigger a wide range of signaling pathways involved in eukaryotic growth, proliferation, survival and differentiation. The signaling specificity of Ras relies on its proper spatiotemporal distribution within cells, which is in turn regulated by Ras partitioning between distinct membrane domains. In vitro experiments in membrane phases mimicking the composition of biological domains (depicted as blue, green and white marbleized pinheads) now reveal that high membrane curvature is essential for preferential partitioning of Ras (yellow pinheads). Cover art by Erin Dewalt. Brief Communication, p192.

Chaperones have been shown to facilitate evolution by enabling exploration of destabilizing mutations. Studies of Rubisco folding and assembly now show that some chaperones—such as the specialized RbcX—disfavor mutations, perhaps explaining Rubisco's poor catalytic turnover. Cover art by Erin Dewalt, based on imagery from Paulo Durão, Harald Aigner, Andreas Bracher and Manajit Hayer-Hartl. Article, p148

Tyrosine biosynthesis in plants has been thought to be dependent on a plastidic arogenate dehydrogenase that is subject to feedback inhibition by tyrosine. However, new research has uncovered a bacterial-like prephenate dehydrogenase in legumes that is cytosolic and free from tyrosine inhibition, with implications for both plant biochemistry and metabolic engineering. Cover art by Erin Dewalt, based on imagery from Sarah Friedrich. Article, p52