This is my 10th journal cover, and it was for a journal that is apparently celebrating its 10th anniversary. Also in April, I learned that I had won a cover art competition for Nature Chemical Biology's 10th anniversary issue (will share that when it comes out). My string of good luck has included being very busy with work, so 10 is also roughly the number of consecutive days that I've been working late nights to keep up, and the minimum % ABV beer that I will enjoy when I finally get a night off.

The paper highlighted on the cover below is about an arginine deiminase called PAD2 that is activated through a series of calcium ions binding to the enzyme in a particular order. As a co-activator of the estrogen receptor in breast cancer cells, it's a pretty important therapeutic target. The padlock in the active site was chosen because the corresponding author has a company called Padlock Therapeutics that was built on this basic research, so the idea is that the calcium ions are unlocking activity.