Culture Collections brochures and leaflets
Culture Collections has a range of brochures and leaflets which provide information about our expertly preserved, authenticated cell lines and microbial strains of known provenance for use in medical science and laboratory healthcare.
A selection of literature has recently been updated for 2020, to show our latest products and services and provide the most up-to-date information on what Culture Collections can offer.
You can find below our latest leaflets for each of the collections.
The European Collection of Authenticated Cell Cultures (ECACC)
The European Collection of Cell Cultures brochure
The European Collection of Authenticated Cell Cultures (ECACC) is one of four Culture Collections of Public Health England. We supply authenticated and quality controlled cell lines, nucleic acids and induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs).
The European Bank for induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
The aim of the European Bank of induced pluripotent Stem Cells (EBiSC) is to make human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) easily accessible to medical researchers both studying diseases and developing new treatments.
The Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Initiative (HipSci)
The Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Initiative (HipSci) is generating a large, high-quality reference panel of human iPSC lines for the research community.
Colon cancer, also known as colorectal or large bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in the Western world (preceded only by breast and lung cancer by numbers of incidence). Over 60 cell lines derived from colorectal cancers are available from ECACC.
A series of (o)esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) cell lines are available in the ECACC General Collection catalogue. The majority of these cell lines have been studied by Boonstra et al., 2010, who in a world-wide effort sought to verify the authenticity of all available EAC cell lines by comparing the cell lines to the original primary tumour tissue from the donors.
The National Collection of Type Cultures (NCTC)
The National Collection of Type Cultures brochure
The National Collection of Type Cultures is one of four Culture Collections of Public Health England. The NCTC collection, which is certified to BS EN ISO 9001:2008, supplies nearly 5100 type and reference bacterial strains - many of medical, scientific and veterinary importance worldwide.
In collaboration with PHE’s Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infections (AMRHAI) Reference Unit, a custom-made LENTICULE® disc product has been developed that can be used as a ‘five-in-one’ antimicrobial resistance gene control for multiplex PCR assays.
Antimicrobial Resistance Reference Strains and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Control Strains
Public Health England’s National Collection of Type Cultures (NCTC), working in partnership with Public Health England’s Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infections (AMRHAI) Reference Unit, offers a range of reference strains with characterised resistance mechanisms.
Freeze drying (lyophilisation) a bespoke service
Lyophilisation, also known as freeze-drying, is a preservation method achieved through dehydration. NCTC has over 50 years experience of freeze-drying bacterial strains and has collated a large viability data set which supports the suitability of freeze-drying for prolonged storage.
The National Collection of Pathogenic Viruses (NCPV)
The National Collection of Pathogenic Viruses brochure
The National Collection of Pathogenic Viruses is one of four Culture Collections of Public Health England. NCPV preserves well characterised, authenticated human pathogenic viruses in a secure facility, and is able to supply the agents, or nucleic acids derived from them, to the scientific community according to national and international guides.
Arboviruses available from NCPV
Public Health England’s National Collection of Pathogenic Viruses (NCPV) supplies hundreds of authenticated cultures and nucleic acids including examples of most of the common arbovirus species for research purposes. Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) are transmitted by biting arthropod vectors. The viruses are genetically diverse and are from several different virus families, including Togaviridae and Flaviviridae.
Zika virus (ZIKV) was first isolated from a monkey in 1947 originating from the Zika forest in Uganda. It was subsequently identified in humans in 1952 in Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania. Genetic studies have shown that there are three distinct genotypes of ZIKV; East African, West African and Asian.
Reference materials for norovirus and hepatitis A virus
Reference materials (RM) are important elements of quality control in microbiological testing. In partnership with the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), Public Health England (PHE) provides RMs for: Norovirus genogroup I, Norovirus genogroup II and Hepatitis A virus.
The National Collection of Pathogenic Fungi (NCPF)
The National Collection of Pathogenic Fungi leaflet
The National Collection of Pathogenic Fungi is one of four Culture Collections of Public Health England. NCPF is the United Kingdom's only culture collection specialising in fungi pathogenic to humans and animals.
Candida auris: An emerging pathogen
Candida auris is an emerging fungal pathogen first isolated from the ear of a patient from Japan in 2009. It has subsequently been isolated from several sites of infection including the bloodstream and skin wounds world-wide. 21 strains isolated from 14 hospitals in the UK are now available from NCPF.
Genome-wide knockout (KO) libraries have been used to great effect to establish an in-depth understanding of microbial functional genomics. COFUN aims to generate knockout mutants for all of the coding genes in the human pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus.
Culture Collections
Nucleic acids (genomic DNA, RNA and cDNA) are used increasingly in research and clinical diagnostic settings as an alternative to live micro-organisms and cell lines in disease research, as a means of producing vaccines, as a tool for identifying potential drug targets for novel therapeutics in drug development, and also as gene controls in diagnostic PCR assays.