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. The opening reception was held at the Glasgow Science Centre - a perfect spot for nearly 1500 scientists to convene. Thank-you for a great meeting. See you in Jeju Korea in 2021! 

The Monaghan Lab was well-represented at this year's Plant Canada meeting, held at the University of Guelph. It was four days of excellent plant science! I chaired a session on Molecular Plant Microbe Interactions, where both Melissa and Irina gave seminars, and Carmen presented a poster. All three of them were recipients of Duff Travel Awards from the Canadian Society of Plant Biology to help offset their travel expenses - thank-you to CSPB for supporting these young scientists. I am so grateful to be a part of the community of plant scientists in Canada. We encourage and help each other work towards understanding as much as we can about the biology of plants while at the same time mentoring the next generation of scientists.Thanks to the meeting organizers for bringing us together to discuss our latest research. See you next year in Saskatoon! 

Congratulations to Queen's Hons BSc graduates and former Monaghan Lab members Suba, Alex, and Ruxandra. I am so proud of these talented young women, who each contributed to our research program. 

Thank-you for your hard work, best of luck, and keep in touch! 

This week our group spent two days away from the lab at Queen's University Biological Station. We worked in the main lodge by a wood-burning stove for hours, going over the direction of everyone's projects and thinking about 'the bigger picture'. Prior to the retreat, everyone shared summaries of their results, paper/thesis outlines, and a list of readings. Although we have weekly lab meetings, this intensive and cozy retreat allowed our hive mind to thrive and everyone left eager to get back to their benches and test hypotheses.