With this February 2018 issue, Microbial Cell publishes its 50th issue since the release of the first one in January 2014. In the course of the last years, the journal has developed rapidly and reached a number of milestones, including the DOAJ award for high open access quality, acceptance into the Thomson Reuters/Clarivate ESCI index, or inclusion in Pubmed Central among others. We have published a large number of outstanding papers by leaders in their respective field of research, for example by Alexander Varshavsky, Dan Klionsky, or Guido Kroemer. In addition, we have started to produce a series of Special Issues with the first one already published (on sexually transmitted diseases) and several others currently in preparation. In fact, the number of views/downloads of our articles has risen considerably in the course of the last one and a half years and is currently at approximately 800 per day. Most importantly, the number of citations has been steadily increasing (see graphic below). We expect to obtain an official impact factor in the course of this year. We thank all readers, referees, editors and authors for their great contribution to these successful 50 first issues and for their support in these early phases of Microbial Cell, a journal we understand to be crafted “from scientists for scientists”.