Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen

The Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen - DSMZ - (German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures) GmbH was founded 1969 as the national culture collection in Germany. The independent, non-profit organization is dedicated to the acquisition, characterization and identification, preservation and distribution of Bacteria, Archea, fungi, plasmids, bacteriophages, human and animal cell lines, plant cell cultures and plant viruses. The collection is member of the WGL-Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Since 1994 Prof. Dr. Erko Stackebrandt acts as scientific director.

The DSMZ has, at present, about 30.000 cultures, such as 19.000 different cultures of microorganisms, 750 plant cell cultures, 550 plant viruses, 600 human an animal cell lines, and 6700 patent- and safe deposits. Only biological material of risk group 1 and 2 is housed. The scientific services are offered to support fundamental research and processes of industrial production or ecological development, but also for the elucidation and solution of biological material. The DSMZ is recognized as an International Deposit Authority (IDA) for the deposit of biological material under the Budapest Treaty.

The research activities are focussed on collection-related fields, including microbial taxonomy, phylogeny, evolution, molecular biodiversity studies, development of preservation methods for biological material, cell line characterization and identification as well as detection and elimination of mycoplasms and viruses from human and animal cell lines. Information on cultures and services, catalogues and lists are available online at [www.dsmz.de]. The DSMZ is a member of worldwide organizations like the „European Culture Collections' Organisation“ (ECCO), the „World Federation for Culture Collections“ (WFCC) and the „Global Biodiversity Information Facility“ (GBIF). The DSMZ also has close working links with several other international culture collections, such as ICMP in New Zealand, CFBP in France, BCCM/LMG in Belgium, NCPPB in the UK, and others.

References

• DSMZ