ECCO 39

We are delighted to be sponsoring the 39th ECCO conference, which will be held online from 22 – 24 September. The event is a great opportunity for culture collections throughout Europe to get together, compare notes, collaborate, and discuss the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead in supporting scientists that work with microorganisms. The event, which is being hosted by PHE culture collections, was postponed from last year, so it will be great to have this opportunity to get together with everyone, albeit virtually. This year our culture collection curator …

Vacancy: Chief Executive Officer

After 11 years in the role, our CEO Dr Carol Phillips has decided it is time for a new adventure. She will be retiring from working life next year and consequently the search has begun for our new CEO. NCIMB Ltd is a specialist microbiological services company that supplies microbial cultures and provides a range of microbiology, biological material storage and analytical services to industrial and academic customers around the globe. Our products and services deliver essential underpinning support for research and innovation projects, quality control programmes, industrial microbiology and …

Celebrating International Microorganism Day 2021

Dr Samantha Law considers the important role of culture collections around the world on International Microorganism Day 17 September is International Microorganisms Day, because on this day in 1683, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek wrote to the Royal Society about his teeth being the home to “many very little animalcules”. The understanding of these ‘animacules’ and their importance to every aspect of our lives has come a long way since then.  Culture collections around the world have played a pivotal role in supporting microbiological research, collaborating, and working together to ensure that …

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 …

NCIMB present Guide to the Deposit of Biological Material for Patenting Purposes at CIPA webinar

NCIMB have produced a new downloadable guide to the deposit of biological material for patent purposes, and our culture collection curator Dr Samantha Law presented a webinar on the topic at the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) at the start of September. The patenting system was developed to stimulate innovation – offering protection in exchange for the disclosure of inventions allows other inventors to understand the latest advances and build on them to develop new technologies. For many inventions, disclosure requires a written description and drawings. In the case …

NCIMB Sponsors the Reservoir Microbiology Forum 2021

We are delighted to be a sponsor of the 27th Reservoir Microbiology Forum. We always look forward to attending RMF, and this year it is being run as a hybrid event, giving everyone the opportunity to participate in the way the way that is most convenient and comfortable for them. The forum, which is hosted by the Energy Insitute, is a great opportunity for oil producers, scientist, technologists, engineers, academics and researchers from around the world to present, share and discuss the widespread effects of microbes in oil reservoirs. New …