Yesterday, we had two things to celebrate. One the one hand, our lab member Basha Topel Prieto defended her Master thesis project in the Biotechnology and Bioengineering of Plants program with great success. On the other hand, it has been her birthday . Over the last few months, Basha was involved in the characterisation of a fungal isolate that has been obtained from plants growing on highly contaminated mining wastelands. She demonstrated nicely that her Penicillium sp. D7 strain has a tremendous growth promoting effect on its host plant and that it also confers increased As(III) tolerance. This initial characterisation is highly appreciated in our group and certainly paved the way for further future studies and publications. Thank you so much for your dedication and commitment. All the best for your future career