National Collection of Type Cultures (NCTC)
The National Collection of Type Cultures is one of four Culture Collections of UK Health Secruity Agency.
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. NCTC strains support academic, health, food and veterinary institutions and are used in microbiology laboratories in a range of different sectors and in research institutes worldwide. All are available in a freeze-dried (lyophilised) format.
Founded in 1920, NCTC is the longest-established collection of its type anywhere in the world, and also serves as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Microbial Resource Centre (MIRCEN).
NCTC provides a range of associated services which include an International Depository Authority (IDA) patent depository for bacterial cultures. NCTC has access to the wide-ranging expertise of an internationally-renowned body of specialists in clinical, food, water and environmental microbiology, genomics and proteomics, from across the wider UKHSA organisation.
Products
The strains represent many different species from specific disease conditions and widespread geographical locations; many have known antimicrobial resistance mechanisms/patterns and some contain specific plasmids.
The collection is of fundamental importance to the life science community and many of the strains are stipulated in internationally recognised standard methods as definitive control strains for various microbiological testing procedures. The strains are preserved as characterised, authenticated freeze-dried (lyophilised) cultures in fused-glass ampoules, which are stored mainly at 10°C.
You can either search the collection or browse by alphabetical listing. A selected range of cultures are also available as NCTC LENTICULE® Discs.
In addition, 150 strains are also available as Bacterial DNA. The DNA supplied (approximately 2µg) is high molecular weight and is therefore suitable for a wide range of molecular applications including whole genome sequencing.
Strains grouped by specific characteristics:
- Antimicrobial susceptibility control strains
- Antimicrobial resistance reference strains
- Control strains for the microbiological testing of water samples for Pseudomonas aeruginosa
- Clostridium difficile strains - Ribotype and Toxin Status
- NCTC reference strains for Standards for Microbiology Investigations (UK-SMI)
- World Data Centre for Microorganisms (WDCM) reference strains
NCTC is a registered trademark of UK Health Secruity Agency in the UK. The trademark must not be used without a license agreement. Parties interested in using the trademarks should contact NCTC.