Culture Collections and Biological Resource Centres (BRCs)
Authors: Smith David 
Published: October 2009

Culture collections are centres that provide authentic examples of organisms, often microorganisms or animal and/or plant cell cultures that can be grown or maintained in the laboratory. They normally have a public service role and often provide other biological resources and services. Collections are varied in size and coverage; they can be small and limited in the range of materials held, these can be collected and maintained by single researchers; they can also be institutional entities or large public service collections covering a broad range of organisms from many sources. They can focus on defined organism type, for example, fungi or human‐derived material and, in some instances, specific genera; they can specialize on use of the materials, for example, industrial enzymes or antimicrobials, on host crops, and they may be linked to a particular sector such as the environment, healthcare, education, or agriculture. The modern day culture collection is now described as a Biological Resource Centre (BRC), which has the goal to give access to high quality biological materials, associated information, and services. Such centers can support countries establish a means to conserve their genetic resources, make them available for research, and release their potential to provide solutions to national economic, environmental, food, and healthcare problems and consequently contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. BRCs provide the biological resources to underpin biotechnology, which offers a future beyond depletion of our natural resources and a basis for a bioeconomy. More and more natural resource alternatives are being found using cells as factories to produce them, for example, biofuels, drugs, neutraceuticals food, and beverages. BRCs are knowledge bases necessary to underpin the development of biological‐based industries, which will lead to economic development. This is in line with the development framework for poverty eradication and also establishes a strong support facility in fulfilment of signatory country commitment to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Currently, over 520 collections, holding over 1.7 million organisms and cell lines, are registered with the World Data Centre for Microorganisms and there are numerous collections associated with bioindustry, microbiology laboratories, and research and higher educational establishments. The traditional collection activities are often losing pace with technology and user needs, and they require a major shift in their operations and delivery. Advances in molecular biology take authenticity by taxonomy to another level; analytical tools to characterize strain properties are often beyond the reach of the small specialist collections. BRCs must use long‐term storage methods that enable them to provide the authentic high quality biological materials demanded. They must operate in compliance with the legal framework in which biological resources are accessed, handled, disseminated, and used. For over three decades, the World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC) has worked to foster the establishment and development of collections and has served to network and coordinate some of their activities. Today one of the key initiatives relevant to this has been the OECD Biological Resource Centre Task Initiative, which aspires to network animal, plant, microorganism, and human‐derived materials to give improved access to high quality biological resources.