NCIMB

75 years of excellence in microbiology

NCIMB Ltd was established as a company in 1982,
but our history goes back much further.
We are proud of our heritage and strive to deliver products
and services that meet our customers’ high expectations.

1950's

Cover of the second edition of the National Collection of Industrial Bacteria catalogue. It is grayscale design with an illustration of the glass ampoules that contain NCIMB strains

1950

National Collection of Industrial Bacteria announced in Nature

A black and white photograph of a hand holding an agar plate with bacterial colonies on it

1958

National Collection of Marine Bacteria announced in Nature

An old colour photograph of ampoules being loaded into a centrifuge

1959

The National Collections of Industrial and Marine Bacteria are co-located in Aberdeen

1980's

A colour photograph of the Kings College Chapel at Aberdeen Univeristy

1981

The National Collections of Industrial and Marine Bacteria are transferred from the UK Civil Service to Aberdeen University Research Services (AURIS)

The NCIMB logo from 1982. It includes an illustration of red bacterial cells in a circle as if viewed through a microscope. NCIMB is in white lettering on a black background underneath the image. Limited is in black lettering on a white background beneath NCIMB

1982

The collections become NCIMB Ltd, created as a wholly owned subsidiary of AURIS

A colour photograph of Budapest

1983

NCIMB Ltd acquires the status of International Depository Authority under the Budapest Treaty

1990's

A colour photograph of hands picking ampoules from a drawer in the NCIMB culture collection

1993

The National Collection of Food Bacteria is moved to NCIMB

A colour photograph of an electrophoresis gel being set up. Sample is being pipetted into the wells in the gel

1997

Sanger sequencing service offered

2000's

The NCIMB logo from 2000. It includes red bacterial cells in a circle as if viewed through a microscope. NCIMB is written under the circle in italic capital letters

2000

NCIMB spun out from AURIS

The mara logo. The letter m is white on a blue circle, The rest of the letters are black on a white background

2006

MARA ecotox testing service launch

2010 to today

A scientist in a white labcoat and purple nitrile gloves is placing samples in a sequencer.

2017

NCIMB invested in next generation sequencing capability

IMB are grey in colour beneath blue dots representing a microtiter plate. One of the dots in the plate is grey.

2022

Moved to new purpose-built facility