Culture Collection

NCIMB manages the National Collection of Industrial, Food and Marine Bacteria: the UK’s biggest repository for reference strains of environmental and industrially useful bacteria, plasmids and bacteriophages.  It is an important genetic resource for researchers and industry around the globe.

The reference collection includes thousands of strains from ACDP Hazard Groups 1 and 2, along with morphological descriptions, hazard group classification, culture requirements and genomic data. It is continuously expanding as a result of new accessions from the international research community.

National Culture collections like NCIMB's are biological resources that play a vital role in developing the use and understanding of microorganisms, though the preservation and provision of authentic reference strains.

We follow international conventions and work to ISO 9001:2015 standards to ensure our culture collection provides a high quality resource today, and for future generations of scientists.

NCIMB is a member of the European Culture Collections Organisation (ECCO) and the World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC). It is an associate member of the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC).