The 17th of September is International Microorganism Day – created to raise awareness of the role that microorganisms have in our lives. Microorganisms represent a huge genetic diversity that has the potential to change the way we live for the better – from biofuel production and green chemistry, to new medicines and tasty food and drinks, microorganisms have so much to offer.
Though they are not always the first thing that people think of when discussing biodiversity, microbial diversity is absolutely vital for our future and microorganisms could provide the solutions to many of the big issues we face today.
NCIMB Ltd looks after the UK’s National Collection of Industrial, Food and Marine Bacteria. Culture collections around the world preserve and store microorganisms making them available to researchers and industry. They are a genetic resource for the 21st century, whilst also preserving and recording the work of generations of microbiologists.
One of the things that is endlessly fascinating about our culture collection is the diversity of the strains within it and the environments from which they have been isolated. They have come from all kinds of sources, all around the world. To celebrate that, we created an “A-Z of NCIMB” that picks out a strain for each letter of the alphabet. It is a fun introduction to our culture collection, which includes many things that you might not expect.
You can download a pdf of our A-Z here.
