The National Collection of Type Cultures (NCTC) is one of four Culture Collections operated by Public Health England. NCTC is the longest-established collection of its type and entered its centenary year in 2020.
The collection holds over 6000 type and reference bacterial strains of medical, scientific and veterinary importance. The strains support academic, health, food and veterinary institutions and are used in microbiology laboratories and research institutes worldwide. All strains are available in a freeze-dried format and DNA from over 100 strains is also available.
In 2020, NCTC accessioned over 175 new strains into the collection from all over world. These included 79 newly described type strains, strains of recently described taxa, novel bacteriophage,
control strains and recently circulating clinical strains. NCTC is a unique resource and its remit over the past 100 years has remained largely unchanged: to provide a trustworthy source of authentic bacterial strains for use in scientific studies.
www.phe-culturecollections.org.uk/NCTC
