Sylwia Stopka (PhD ’17) of the Vertes group was the driving force behind an exciting project to develop new tools for the study of biological nitrogen fixation. In fall of 2017, the Chemistry Department received funding from the National Science Foundation as part of an interdisciplinary team formed with two other universities. The project explored plant-microbe interactions in biological nitrogen fixation using analytical tools developed in the Vertes laboratory. Combining a dual-channel microscope, capable of bright field and fluorescence imaging, with a laser ablation electrospray ionization system for the mass spectrometric analysis of single plant cells offered new insight into the biochemistry of self-fertilizing plants such as soybean.