This is just like seeing your own child grow up. You expect a lot and at the same time you want to be modest in your expectations. Hence both are true. We expected M&I to become highly cited, but still were surprised how fast this was achieved.

In addition to the factors mentioned above, I could add that M&I can look back on a long history. In the 1850s, Louis Pasteur in Paris laid the basis for microbiology and also, most importantly, for the implementation of medical microbiology or our understanding of infectious diseases. Quite interestingly, here in Berlin, where I live, Robert Koch, who worked in the second half of the 19^th century, became the second hero of medical microbiology and of infectious disease research. Until the mid 20^th century, infectious disease research was growing and flourishing. In the ‘60s and ‘70s, the general opinion arose that infectious diseases were no longer a problem. Today, we all know how false this was. Therefore, M&I also benefits from the fact that more recently, the public awareness about the host immune response to infectious agents has drastically increased. Accordingly, a much larger number of researchers are now interested in immunity to infectious diseases.

Along with the rise of public awareness of infectious diseases, as noted, I would like to add that the discovery of the important role of the innate immune response in instructing the acquired immune response occurred in the last 20 years of the 20^th century. Notably, the innate immune system is able to distinguish between different microbial pathogens through distinct biochemical patterns, and this is a field in which M&I has concentrated. This important feature of the immune system could only be understood by viewing the major task of the immune response as the combat against microbial pathogens. This being a major part of the immune response, M&I became a natural host for these topics. At the same time, molecular genetics of microbial pathogens has dramatically increased in the last three decades, and the global "–omics" approaches to infection became hot topics: all central to M&I.

Let me just reemphasize that the fact that the immune system has developed as a counterpart of constant encounter with microbial pathogens is identical with the philosophy of M&I. Accordingly, our major contribution has been and will be the analysis of the immune response in the context of infection.

We will continue with this philosophy, with an emphasis on experimental studies. This does not at all exclude studies in humans, and we will further strengthen translational medicine as it relates to immunity to infectious diseases. Thus, we want to represent the whole spectrum from wet lab research to rational analysis of immunity to infectious agents in humans. This includes the development of rational intervention strategies, notably vaccine development. Immunology can contribute a lot to these burning questions, including our knowledge of how to induce the most adequate immune response to a given pathogen and the identification of immunological biomarkers which help us to define the protective efficacy or pathological consequences of an ongoing immune response, be it induced by the natural pathogen or by a novel vaccine. In short, M&I will take a leading role in understanding the complex cross-talk between the smallest microorganisms (viruses, bacteria, and protozoa) in the world and the most complex organisms, namely the human host. We will not restrict our research to experimental animal studies but give equal room for translational research. In fact, this is exactly what Pasteur meant when he said: "No science can be called an applied science. There is science and the application of science, which are bound together like the fruit to the tree."