We are recruiting! Laboratory analyst post

NCIMB, an expanding microbiological and chemical analytical company, has a vacancy for a Laboratory Analyst to join their busy analytical department.  This role is a full time and permanent position. Candidates should have good communication skills, be self-motivated with excellent attention to detail and be able to work with minimum supervision.  Duties include: • The undertaking of chemical analyses in order to meet deadlines. • Liaising with customers and producing reports. • Organizing and managing the routine maintenance of equipment. • Ordering consumables, maintaining inventories and stock. • Meeting the …

New reference strains available from NCIMB

Three new strains are now available from the National Collection of Industrial Food and Marine Bacteria – one hydrocarbon degrading Halomonas species and two strains of Salinisphaera. The Halomonas species, NCIMB 15113, was deposited by researchers from the Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology at the University of Oklahoma. It was isolated from a produced water storage tank in Barnett Shale, North Texas USA, and has the ability to degrade a variety of straight-chain alkanes. The two Salinisphaera strains, NCIMB 15097 Salinisphaera ulaidhensis and NCIMB 15098 Salinisphaera belfastensis, were both isolated from brine taken from the Kilroot salt mine in Northern …

NCIMB celebrates World Microbiome Day

The first World Microbiome Day is on the 27 June 2018 with the theme “mind our microbes”.  World Microbiome Day aims to encourage researchers around the world to spread the message of the importance of microbiomes. The microbiome is defined as the community of microorganisms that live in a particular environment. People are often unaware that bacteria form complex, interacting communities as much of the focus on bacteria is when a species is singled out as a dangerous pathogen. The reality is that we all live with a synergistic, supportive …

NCIMB appoints bioinformatics expert

NCIMB is delighted to welcome Dr. Daniel Swan in a new role as Bioinformatics Delivery Manager. Daniel is responsible the delivery and continued development of NCIMB’s bioinformatics services and comes directly from running one of the UK’s largest genomics facilities. His expertise is the analysis of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) data which is revolutionising our understanding of microbial communities and environmental microbiology. Commenting on his appointment Daniel said: “NGS has an exciting role to play in realising the full potential of NCIMB’s culture collection, offering both industry and academic researchers a …

How microbially influenced corrosion has influenced NCIMB

The National Collection of Industrial Food and Marine Bacteria includes more than 10000 environmentally and industrially important bacteria, such as those used in food manufacture or nutrient cycling, as well as a number of species and strains that cause problems for the oil and gas industry, through their role in microbially influenced corrosion and reservoir souring. Since NCIMB is attending the Reservoir Microbiology Forum this week, we thought we would take a look back at how the work we have done to help the oil and gas industry tackle these …

Recent deposits to the National Collection of Industrial, Food and Marine Bacteria

Four novel species of methylotrophs have been added to the National Collection of Industrial Food and Marine Bacteria.  They are NCIMB 15078 Methyloceanibacter methanicus; NCIMB 15077 Methyloceanibacter stevinii; NCIMB 15076 Methyloceanibacter superfactus and NCIMB 15075 Methyloceanibacter marginalis. The four type strains were deposited by Bran Vekeman from the Laboratory of Microbiology, University of Gent. They were isolated from North Sea sediment. Marine methylotrophs play a key role in the carbon cycle by metabolizing reduced one-carbon compounds that are found in high concentrations in marine environments. More information about the new species can be found in the paper: Vekeman …