Paul Nurse is a geneticist and cell biologist who has worked on how the eukaryotic cell cycle is controlled. His major work has been on the cyclin-dependent protein kinases and how they regulate cell reproduction. He is Director of the Francis Crick Institute in London, and has served as President of the Royal Society, Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK and President of Rockefeller University. He shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and has received the Albert Lasker Award and the Royal Society's Royal and Copley Medals. He was knighted in 1999, received the Legion d'honneur in 2003, and for 15 years was a member of the Council for Science and Technology advising the UK Prime Minister and Cabinet concerning science and innovation issues. He is now one of the 7 Chief Scientific Advisors of the European Commission.

To celebrate 50 years of promoting microbiology in schools and colleges, MiSAC has invited leading scientists to contribute articles for the website on a wide range of microorganisms and their activities, including 21st century cutting-edge research. The MiSACmatters Articles collection offers secondary teachers and students a unique insight into how microbes support activities on which we depend.

The collection of articles has been so successful that new articles have been commissioned to expand the range of microorganisms covered. When these are written, they will be added to the collection, together with a notice of their publication being flagged on the MiSAC News page.

About the Editors

Margaret Whalley is Treasurer of MiSAC and editor of the MiSACmatters Articles collection. She gained her PhD for research in tropical mycology and biogeography and has extensive experience teaching aspects of microbiology in schools, colleges and universities in the UK and Asia. She has advised on microbiology education in Malaysia, Thailand, Korea and China where she promoted MiSAC activites and ran schools competitions. As a consultant on microbiology education to the Thai government, she has run workshops and courses and written a manual on protocols and activities in microbiology. She has been awarded the Benefactor's Medal of the British Mycological Society for her services to the society and mycology.

Rachel Exley is the Microbiology Society representative member of MiSAC and co-editor of the MiSACmatters Articles collection. She currently works at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology and is a lecturer in medicine at Somerville College Oxford. Rachel obtained her PhD in Microbiology and Genetics at the Université Paris XI, France. She has since worked at Imperial College London and the University of Oxford, studying interactions of bacterial pathogens with the human host during colonisation and disease. In addition to research, Rachel teaches microbiology to undergraduate medical students and has designed and delivered microbiology-related activities for primary school children.