Novel strain discovery tools for academia and industry

Our private strain collection at your fingertips.

Strain collection

Looking for new bacteria to advance your research and drive innovation? Our private strain collection offers limitless possibilities for bio-based products and applications. Think of food and feed ingredients, biostimulants and biocontrol agents but also health-promoting products such as probiotics. Our private strain collection is an untapped source of enzymes and pathways that can produce specialty ingredients, flavors and bioactive compounds.

Strains in our collection

45.970

575 genera

171 isolation sources

84 countries

Our strain collection is truly one of a kind and continuously growing. It is hosted at the Laboratory of Microbiology at Ghent University (LM-UGent) and originated from research projects focusing on bacterial diversity and ecology in very diverse environments. Major subcollections include lactic acid and acetic acid bacteria, bifidobacteria, nitrogen fixing bacteria, plant-associated and phytopathogenic bacteria, marine bacteria, antarctic bacteria and bacteria of clinical and veterinary relevance.

We have a good knowledge of Nagoya Protocol requirements and we keep up-to-date with Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) regulations from the origin countries of the strains in our collection. We exercise due diligence to verify that strains in this collection are free from restrictions on use.

Our private strain collection keeps getting better

We are continuously expanding our private strain collection through strategic isolation projects. Such projects involve a culturomics approach to selectively isolate specific groups of bacteria from a sample and subject them to MALDI-TOF MS. Through dereplication of the obtained mass spectra using our in-house SPeDE software, we eliminate duplicate isolates to retain a reduced set of representative isolates. These are identified to species level using our in-house MALDI-TOF MS identification database supplemented with 16S rRNA gene sequencing or whole-genome sequencing where necessary.

Some of our historic subcollections date back several decades and were identified using state-of- the-art methods available at the time of isolation. We are making extensive efforts to revise identifications using modern methods, mainly through MALDI-TOF MS and (whole-genome) sequence analysis.

Interested in our private strain collection?

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Our tools

We understand the demands for innovative, clean and sustainable solutions in industry. As microbiologists, we believe bacteria can help meet those needs. That is why we are committed to help you discover the immense potential of our private strain collection, guiding you every step of the way. To facilitate your search for novel strains, we developed two innovative tools. Our team of PhD level experts is always available for advice and professional consultancy services.

StrainInSight® Dashboard

Our interactive Dashboard is the best way to start exploring our private strain collection. The visual and intuitive interface allows you to browse through our collection and learn more about the identification, isolation source and geographical origin of each strain. Our Dashboard is available free of charge and presents an efficient and accessible way to assess the potential value of our bacteria for your specific application.

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StrainInSight® Genome Database

Our goal is to provide detailed insights into the functional capacity of the strains in our private collection, allowing you to select strains that are truly relevant for your application. The StrainInSight Genome Database contains annotated whole-genome sequences and metadata of selected strains from our private strain collection. With an easy-to-use interface and customizable filters, users can search for specific enzymes or metabolites in the genomes of strains in the database.

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About us

StrainInSight is embedded in the Laboratory of Microbiology at Ghent University (LM-UGent) and the BCCM/LMG Bacteria Collection.

The LM-UGent team studies microbial diversity, evolution, taxonomy, ecology, host-microbe interaction and protein biochemistry. Our research topics are diverse and embedded in environmental, plant, medical and food microbiology.

The BCCM/LMG Bacteria Collection is one of the largest and well-known Biological Resource Centres (BRCs) specialized in bacteria worldwide. BCCM/LMG specializes in deposit, preservation and distribution of bacterial strains, and in bacterial identification and characterization taking into account the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) guidelines.

Our team

Service team

Management team

Scientific advisors