WHO hands over management of world's largest public collection of TB strains to ITM in Antwerp

The World Health Organisation (WHO) handed over the management of the world's largest public collection of tuberculosis (TB) strains to the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) in Antwerp. These TB-strains play a key role in supporting scientific research into infectious diseases, particularly towards a better understanding of the TB bacterium's drug resistance. In November, the European Commission and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) warned that antibiotic resistance in Europe was still on the rise.

The TB-strains of the WHO special programme for research and training in tropical diseases (TDR) will become part of the collection of mycobacterial strains within the Belgian Culture Collection of Microorganisms (BCCM) consortium. In addition to TB, this collection also includes Buruli ulcer strains. The TDR-collection was already located in Antwerp, but will from now on be officially in Belgian hands. This makes the public BCCM-ITM collection the world's most comprehensive database for TB bacteria typing.    

The Federal Government established the BCCM consortium in 1983 to coordinate the collections of bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms at Belgian institutions. Today, there are seven BCCM-collections, each of which is housed at the institution where they were historically cultivated and where they are studied.   

The bacterial TB strains in the freezers of the ITM's secure laboratories represent the diversity of TB-strains worldwide, as well as the various patterns of antibiotic resistance.    

"We are proud that this Noah's Ark of tuberculosis has been entrusted to us. The collection will enable scientists to better  understand the disease, and to develop new drugs and diagnostics.  These strains have already made their mark in the development of an assay for diagnosing drug-resistant TB. Given the increasing resistance to drugs, they will be even more valuable in the future," said Dr. Leen Rigouts. Rigouts is in charge of the BCCM-ITM collection, and stood at the cradle of the TDR-collection 10 years ago.     

In Antwerp, mapping of the entire genome of the TB-strains will continue.  By last year, researchers from ITM and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine had typed 190 strains from the TDR-database. This increases their value for fundamental research into vaccines and the development of diagnostic assays and new drugs. The research results from the TB-strain typing will be published in 2014.  

By integration within the BCCM-ITM collection, accessibility and quality assurance of the extensive collection have been improved in compliance with the ISO9001 standard.  Small businesses and not-for-profit organisations will continue to have access to the database through tiered pricing.