LAUSR

This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. This article was made open access via a Publish and Read agreement between the Microbiology Society and the corresponding author’s institution. We start this month with an inspiring Personal View from six earlycareer researchers who dropped everything and moved to Milton Keynes [1] . For those of you not familiar with UK topography, this is certainly not an everyday occurrence, although nothing about the last 5 months has been ordinary. These six young microbiologists and life scientists, thrown together to form one of the teams in the UK Lighthouse Labs set up as a response to an urgent need to increase coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) testing capacity, recount what it was like to be involved in this epic effort. The team comprising Fatima Ulhuq (@Fatimaaa_U), Sophia Berry (@DrSophiaBerry), Lucy Kelly (@micro_lucy), Ben Stansfield (@StansfieldBen), Anna Deal (@Annacadeal) and Harriet Lester, emphasize the strong feeling of purpose and community that was quickly created, knowing that they were helping a national effort. This was particularly poignant for Harriet, who had lost her mother to the disease shortly after she had agreed to join the project. It is a gripping read and I highly recommend it to you. Two other young microbiologists have also written about their experiences, Ellie Boardman (@ellierboardman) for the Microbiology Society and Adrienne Adele Cox (@AdrienneACox) for The Biologist. These young scientists and many of their colleagues deserve our recognition and thanks for their sterling work and have likely forged friendships that will last for decades.