A study published this week in mBio demonstrates that a novel technique can be used to build better vaccines for infectious diseases. The study shows that a practical method, bacterial enzymatic combinatorial chemistry (BECC), can be used to generate functionally diverse molecules that can potentially be used as adjuvants. Vaccines often combine a well-characterized recombinant protein antigen with an adjuvant to increase the immunogenic response of the vaccine. The study is important given the urgent need for new and more effective vaccines against infectious diseases worldwide.