Melissa and Jacqueline travel to Glasgow, Scotland, to attend the International Congress on Molecular Plant Microbe Interactions

Melissa and I recently attended the IS-MPMI congress in Glasgow, Scotland. This meeting is always a favourite because of the  truly outstanding science, and the fact we get to visit with many friends and colleagues who live around the world. This year, I was fortunate to reconnect with former Monaghan Lab member Danalyn Holmes, who is now pursing a PhD at the University of Tuebingen with Thomas Lahaye, as well as former mentee Sarah Pottinger, who is now well into her PhD with Roger Innes in Indiana USA. The opening reception was held at the Glasgow Science Centre - a perfect spot for nearly 1500 scientists to convene. This intense meeting then spanned days of plenaries, with notable talks by Brian Staskawicz (Berkeley), Phillippe Raymond (University of Lausanne), Ken Shirasu (RIKEN), Maria Harrison (BTI), Nick Talbot (Sainsbury Lab), Katarina Markmann (Tuebingen), and many others. At the poster session, Melissa received great feedback and helpful critiques on her work "Phosphorylation-dependent sub-functionalization of the Ca2+-dependent protein kinase CPK28", coming home with plenty of new hypotheses to test. And, Jacqueline struck a few new exciting collaborative projects with researchers in the USA, Germany, and France. The MPMI organizers hosted a 'Celebration of Diversity' night at pub in downtown Glasgow, which was well attended and brought to the forefront some important issues faced by marginalized groups in our research community. Mid-week, Zipfel lab alumni met for a pizza dinner - it was great to catch up with the old team! Intense meetings like this one usually have a free afternoon; to discover a bit of Glasgow, I decompressed with a walk around 'west end' neighbourhood, visiting the University of Glasgow and the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Natural History Museum. To end off a great week of exciting science, we enjoyed a Ceilidh dance party at Merchant Square. Thank-you for a great meeting. See you in Jeju Korea in 2021!