Issue 2 • 2026
A Letter from the President
Greetings plant-microbe enthusiasts! I’ve just completed my first year as President of IS-MPMI. I am proud of the exciting developments in our society. Our biggest news is that we have successfully transitioned to a self-managed society. This has dramatically reduced our overhead costs and stimulated board and membership engagement. The…
Welcome to the new Interactions Editor-in-Chief, Jacqueline Monaghan
Jacqueline Monaghan is the Canada Research Chair in Plant Immunology and an Associate Professor in the Biology Department at Queen’s University in Canada. She earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto, where she had the good fortune of working with Robin Cameron who introduced her to the wonderful…
New features available on the IS-MPMI website
We are happy to announce that IS-MPMI members can now post and browse open positions on our FREE job board. We also have a bulletin board, accessible through the community tab following member login. We also now have an events page that anyone can submit to – if you would…
Get Ready for IS-MPMI 2027 in Jeju, Korea!
Concurrent Session Proposals for 2027 IS-MPMI Congress in Jeju Are Now Open! → Applications are being accepted until September 25, 2026. –—–—–—–— To build momentum toward the 2027 IS-MPMI Congress in Jeju, South Korea (July 18–22, 2027) and keep our global community connected, we are running a brand-new webinar series:…
Rising Stars of IS-MPMI: Federico Emanuel Aballay
Federico Emanuel Aballay, MSc is a PhD student/CONICET fellow at Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias (IFIBYNE), Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina where he leads a research line in Dr. Ezequiel Petrillo’s lab. He studied the Molecular Biology program in Universidad Nacional de San Luis (Argentina) and now he’s…
Rising Stars of IS-MPMI: Urooj Fatima
Urooj Fatima, is a postdoctoral researcher in the Cereal Genetics and Genomics Group at KAUST, Saudi Arabia. Her research focus is to understand the molecular basis of Lectin receptor kinases(LecRKs)-mediated non-host resistance in cereals against rust fungal pathogens. Prior to joining KAUST, she completed her PhD at the National Institute…
Rising Stars of IS-MPMI: Adrián González
Adrián González is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham (UK), where he works in Gabriel Castrillo’s lab. His research explores plant-microbiome interactions, with a particular interest in how root-associated microbial communities influence plant development, stress resilience, and health. He completed his PhD at the Centre for Plant…
InterConnections: Spotlight on Dr. Eilyn Mena
Dr. Eilyn Mena is a molecular biologist and phytopathologist specializing in agricultural biotechnology and molecular plant-microbe interactions. Her research primarily focuses on the genetic, genomic, and molecular mechanisms involved in fungal pathogenesis and activation of plant defenses. She studies soybean stem canker, a highly destructive disease that limits crop yields…
MPMI at the Plant Biology 2026 Congress: Bridging Plant Immunity, Metabolism, and Microbial Dynamics
I recently had the opportunity to attend the annual Plant Biology 2026 meeting held from 18 to 22 July 2026 in Ottawa, Canada, and at this meeting, researchers from different parts of the world shared their discoveries ranging from fundamental cellular mechanisms to ecosystem-scale interactions. For the molecular plant-microbe interactions…
Nominate colleagues for the IS-MPMI Outstanding Achievement and Early Career Achievement Awards
Please consider nominating colleagues for these awards. Nominations will open in the fall of 2026; details will be announced on our website. Note that the nominator and the nominees must be IS-MPMI members in good standing. The Outstanding Achievement Award recognizes an investigator who has a high international reputation as…
Coming soon to MPMI: Special Issue on Plant Immune Receptors in the Spotlight
Edited by Mauricio P. Contreras, Pingtao Ding, Clemence Marchal, Mariana Schuster, and Richard A. Wilson, the upcoming focus issue Plant Immune Receptors in the Spotlight to be published in the journal Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, seeks to capture exciting developments across all areas of immune receptor biology that are pertinent to…
Call for MPMI Assistant Features Editors
The journal Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions is looking for creative, innovative communicators to join their team as assistant feature editors (AFE). This is an exciting opportunity to learn more about the inner workings of the MPMI journal, interact with the greater MPMI scientific community, and be directly involved in science communication…