Around the world in 80 strains- a cheeseboard in France

We are travelling around the world in 80 strains from our culture collection – following in the route of Phileas Fogg in the novel “Around the World in 80 Days”. Stop 4: We have left the beach in France and are looking for something tasty to eat – what trip would be compete without sampling some French cheeses? And we’ve found three strains that can tell us a little bit more about the history of our culture collection, and equivalency between major culture collections. NCIMB 14259 Arthrobacter bergerei is a …

Around the world in 80 strains: first stop – the beach!

Since we haven’t done much travelling recently, we’re going to take a journey around the world in 80 strains, following the route of Phileas Fogg in the novel “Around the World in 80 Days”. Day 3: We finally left the pub in London and have arrived in France, heading straight to the beach! The “M” in NCIMB does stand for “marine” after all. A bit of beachcombing reveals our next three strains. The marine environment is extremely diverse and consequently hosts an enormous diversity of microbial life, and our culture …

Around the world in 80 strains – delayed in a London pub…

Since we haven’t done much travelling recently, we’re going to take a journey around the world in 80 strains, following the route of Phileas Fogg in the novel “Around the World in 80 Days”. Day 2 We should have set off by now, but we are still in the pub, where we found our next four strains! NCIMB 6423 Acetobacter pasteurianus subsp. pasteurianus, NCIMB 6424 Acetobacter pasteurianus and NCIMB 6425 Acetobacter cerevisiae, were all isolated from brewers yeasts and beer, and deposited at NCIMB by our friends at NCTC, who …

Around the world in 80 strains – setting off on our journey from London!

Since we haven’t done much travelling recently, we’re going to take a journey around the world in 80 strains, following the route of Phileas Fogg in the novel “Around the World in 80 Days”. We have travelled down to London from our laboratories in Aberdeen, and begin our journey with a hearty lunch to prepare us for the road ahead. Here we encounter our first two strains! There’s a choice of fish and chips with salt and vinegar or steak pie. Bacteria are sometimes classified as “good” or “bad” but …

The 8th Beneficial Microbes Conference: Jude Huggan reflects on some highlights of the virtual event

I was really looking forward to attending the 8th Beneficial Microbes conference, an event which focuses on identifying gaps, needs and opportunities for applications of pre-, pro- and postbiotics in human and animal health, and I was not disappointed! The conference had a fantastic programme, with speakers from both industry and academia showcasing the latest research on pre- and probiotics and the gut microbiome, the microbiota-gut-brain axis and the microbiome beyond the gut. There were sessions focussing on the placenta, milk and skin microbiomes as well a session on the …

“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen”

Our business development manager Dr Jude Huggan looks back on her first year at NCIMB. I’ve heard this phrase a lot recently, especially in the context of summing up the progress of vaccine development in 2020, but it’s a phrase that works equally well in summarising the year for me. As 2020 draws to a close I’ve taken the time to reflect on my first year as part of the NCIMB family – and what a year it’s been, despite the challenges that COVID had to throw at us! Upon reflection, …