Research and Academia

The National Collection of Industrial, Food and Marine Bacteria plays an integral part in many research and development projects within industry and academia.  We have drawn on decades of experience to develop a range of services in response to the needs of our customers.

The culture collection is the bedrock of our company, and we supply reference cultures to, and receive new accessions from, researchers around the globe.  Depositing type strains at NCIMB complies with the Bacteriological Code for naming and describing new species, and we provide the required certification for publication purposes.

We undertake identification of bacteria and fungi, and can search sequences for genes associated with particular products and properties, rapidly quantify organisms within samples and undertake microbial community analysis or microbial genome assembly with next-generation sequencing (NGS). 

NCIMB is an International Depository Authority under the Budapest Treaty and accepts patent deposits of bacteria, yeasts, bacteriophages, plasmids, plant seeds and plant cell tissue cultures.

Loss of a key strain can be the cause of serious setback within a research programme, but our ISO9001:2015  accredited and cGMP compliant, confidential and secure biological material storage services can help you to protect against that eventuality, as well as providing a back-up for production strains.  Our experienced freeze-drying technicians can also preserve your strains for storage at your own facility.

NCIMB provides research services and also collaborates with companies, universities and research organisations to carry out research and development projects.