How to deposit strains in the Public Collection
The CCOS welcomes your interest in our public collection.
Please send us either a list of the strains you would like to deposit, or directly download and fill out the depositor form. We will then contact you and inform you whether or not we can accept your deposits. Please do not send any material to the CCOS before receiving our response.
After receiving your material, we will produce a Master and a Working Cell Bank and your material will be put through our strict quality control procedures. We will also return a sample to you to confirm the correct identity of the deposited strain. After the approved quality check, the biological material receives a CCOS number, which will appear in the catalogue with all the accompanying data and will be made available as part of the public collection.
Costs:
Making a deposit to the public collection is free of charge. You only have to cover the costs of shipping the strain from your institution to the CCOS and the costs of your own confirmation check. However, we do need to make an exception for cultures and strains that cannot be preserved and stored using our standard procedures and require special treatment, such as regular transfers. A maintenance fee will be requested to cover these costs.
Criteria for deposition:
- The CCOS accepts the following organisms: Cultures of bacteria, yeasts, fungi, cell lines, algae, cyanobacteria and plasmids.
- Cultures with a Swiss background are preferred and foreign cultures are welcome if they meet the Nagoya Protocols regulatory requirements, namely PIC and MAT, if required by the country in which the strains have been isolated. Type strains are accepted from all countries.
- The CCOS also prefers cultures with unique features that mark them as “special” among these species, such as atypical antibiotic resistance patterns.
- The culture must been well documented in terms of its description, date of isolation, origin, the contact data of the person who isolated the material, identification methods, ownership and the transfer history.
- The biosafety classification of the organism does not exceed BSL2.
- Long-term preservation and cultivation using CCOS methods and equipment is possible.
The benefits for you of a making a deposit at the CCOS:
- The rights of the strains stays with the depositor.
- You can deposit material to be distributed under your own MTA, thus maintaining all rights for commercial applications.
- You do not need to distribute the material to third parties yourself. Your cultures can be ordered worldwide through the CCOS online shop and the often tedious shipment and clearing formalities will be conducted by the CCOS.
- Depositing type strains is mandatory for the valid publication of newly described species. The CCOS provides approval letters for the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.
- You will be contributing to the exchange of scientific knowledge and materials.
- You will be contributing to the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components as well as the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources.
- High quality preservation, testing, maintenance and distribution procedures are assured by our ISO9001 certification within the CCOS.