9512045 Cypess This award renews funding of the Bacteriology Collection of the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC). The collection includes over 15,000 strains representing most of the known species of bacteria. Approximately 500 strains of bacterial viruses are also included in the collection. About 20% of the bacterial strains are type cultures particularly useful as reference strains in identifying new isolates, performing microbiological assays and other uses where repeated use of the same strain is critical. Samples of collected organisms are available to researchers in universities, research institutes and industry for a small fee. In the last five years, the size of the collection has increased by about 7%, and over 200,000 samples have been distributed. Funding provided through the award will support continued growth in the size of the collection, improvements in the quality-assurance procedures, and progress in providing detailed, current information about the collection through the internet and a printed catalogue. ***
