Culture supply - (Jul/17/2008 )

Fo those inexperienced (and not an ad for ATCC but for info.) getting cultures from other sources, if they respond, risks human error of folks not experienced or validated for supply and getting a culture of unknown transfer background. For example USP demands no more than three transfers from the ATCC supplied culture to maintain characteristic resistance, viability, etc.




ATCC Genuine Cultures™ Emblem Assures Authenticity



ATCC unveiled its ATCC Genuine Cultures™ emblem at the American Society for Microbiology's 105th General Meeting in Atlanta.

The ATCC Genuine Cultures emblem was designed to help customers identify authentic ATCC microbial strains that come directly from ATCC.

ATCC catalog numbers are trademarks of the ATCC that have become universally recognized throughout the bioscience community to identify organisms. However, frequent use of ATCC designations can make it difficult for a user to tell which products are authentic ATCC strains and which are counterfeits. The ATCC Genuine Cultures emblem addressess this issue by assuring that the product is a genuine ATCC culture and meets ATCC's standards.

The ATCC Genuine Cultures emblem signifies the highest quality for microbial strains, including:

Full characterization of each strain to establish identity
Use of a seed stock system to minimize subculturing
Careful preservation and storage protocols to maintain the culture safely and effectively.

The unveiling of the ATCC Genuine Cultures emblem follows last week's introduction of the ATCC Licensed Derivative™ program. While the ATCC Genuine Cultures emblem distinguishes authentic ATCC microbial strains, the ATCC Licensed Derivative program employs licensing agreements to ensure the integrity of ATCC ingredients used in ATCC-derived quality control products.

Both the ATCC Genuine Cultures emblem and the ATCC Licensed Derivative program are part of the broader ATCC Standard Initiative to ensure safety, quality and validity.

As it usually is a problem to get cultures from the US to Europe, I prefer the DSMZ or for fungal cultures there is the CBS in the Nederlands.


There are lots of other culture collections all over the world who will send you good quality, certified cultures! Found this list although I don't know all collections.

agree gerb - CBS and DSMZ are more than adequate