Happy New Year, Happy New Microbiologyopen!

Happy New Year to all of our authors, referees, readers and to all researchers across the globe! 2026 marks the next evolution of MicrobiologyOpen with a brand new look and branding, new Editor in Chief, Associate Editor Coralie Fumeaux and Advisory board members. The new look MicrobiologyOpen. It is my pleasure to introduce the newly relaunched MicrobiologyOpen journal and our new Editor-in-Chief Chris Rodrigues together with Coralie Fumeaux in the Associate Editor position. Chris Rodrigues, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Chris Rodrigues joined MicrobiologyOpen as Associate Editor in 2021 and was appointed as Chief Editor in June 2025. He received his PhD in Molecular Microbiology in 2011, focusing on bacterial cell division, from the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Between 2011 and 2017, he was postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard Medical School, USA, focusing on molecular aspects of bacterial sporulation. Currently, he is a Reader in Microbiology at University of Warwick, UK. His primary research focuses on the genetics and molecular cell biology of model and pathogenic spore-forming bacteria. Coralie Fumeaux, Associate Editor Dr. Coralie Fumeaux joined MicrobiologyOpen as an associate editor in June 2025. She received her PhD from the University of Geneva in Switzerland, where she worked on cell cycle regulation in alpha-proteobacteria. Between 2014 and 2019, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA, where she studied cell wall synthesis and recycling in the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. She is currently an assistant professor at Lausanne University Hospital and the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. Her lab focuses on cell envelope remodelling and antibiotic resistance in Gram-negative bacteria. Along with Chris and Coralie, we welcome our new advisory board members to the team: Cristina Landeta, Robert Fagan, Laia Pasquina-Lemonche, Rodrigo Reyes-Lamothe, Dirk Van Scheffers, Monica Serrano, William King, Bill Soderstrom and Josué Flores Kim. Now for a little bit about the journal; MicrobiologyOpen is an open access resource for understanding microbial science and biotech, bringing these evolving fields together in this exciting, post-genomic era. An interdisciplinary and broad-scope microbiology journal, we welcome articles that stimulate discussion and debate and consider submissions across unicellular and cell-cluster organisms – prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Every article is open to the world! The journal currently stands with an impact factor of 4.6 and a turnaround time of 36 days from submission to first decision. In addition, the journal is Free-format for initial submission, making it easier for authors to get their research in front of experts quickly and without reformatting burden. It is our desire that the new MicrobiologyOpen forges closer links with you all as members of the microbiology community and to this end, we welcome your thoughts on how we might serve you better as a journal so that we may constantly evolve to the needs of researchers. Please feel free to contact me should you wish to discuss any matter in respect to the journal or publishing in general. While we are on the topic of celebrating the community, we would like to take this opportunity to highlight and thank the authors of the most cited paper in the latest impact factor window;, Dhrati V. Patangia, Cornelius Anthony Ryan, Eugene Dempsey, Reynolds Paul Ross, and Catherine Stanton for their review; “Impact of antibiotics on the human microbiome and consequences for host health” Patangia et al. (2022) which gleaned an incredible 169 citations in 2024. Paul Trevorrow: Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically writing the initial draft (including substantive translation). Christopher Rodrigues: critical review, commentary and revision – including pre- stages. The author has nothing to report. The author declares no conflicts of interest.