Cultures Deposit

CBMAI continually expands its collection, promoting the deposit of microbial strains from academic research projects or of industrial and environmental importance. Deposit requests are subject to prior analysis by the CBMAI to verify the scope of the collection and the biosecurity levels of the collection.

CBMAI’s collection is directed to microbial strains of biotechnological, educational, taxonomic application (reference and type strains) and contains biological material restricted to risk groups 1 and 2 (according to the WHO classification). GMOs are accepted for deposit which can be handled under containment into groups 1 or 2 of the Brazilian classification (CTNBio).

The preservation of strains in the CBMAI collection is carried out using freeze-drying, deep-freezing, mineral oil and water methods (Castellani), in accordance with internationally recommended standards. Its quality is ensured through authentication, feasibility and purity tests, which are performed routinely in the collection. The authentication of the strains of the collection is performed by methods of molecular taxonomy and / or conventional taxonomy aiming at confirmation and validation of their identities. Feasibility and purity tests are performed when the lineage is deposited and when the requested culture is reactivated to be sent to the client.

CBMAI offers two types of deposit:

• Open Deposit (publicly accessible collection): Comprises biological materials and associated information freely accessible to industry and the scientific community. This material can be requested by researchers and national and foreign institutions for the purpose of research and specific applications, according to usage rules defined by the Convention on Biological Diversity and by Law No. 13,123, of May 20, 2015. For the cases of cultures that do part of ongoing research, whose papers are not yet published, there is the possibility of restricting it to public access (open deposit with restriction) for up to two years. This request must be made by the depositor via email or fax at the time of requesting the deposit. After this period the culture will be made available in the collection’s online catalog.

In order, to comply with the provisions of Law No. 13,123, with regard to guaranteeing the sharing of benefits derived from the use of biological material belonging to the national genetic heritage, the depositor must sign the Deposit Form containing the “Authorization for the establishment of TTM” allowing that CBMAI signs the Material Transfer Agreement (TTM) with a customer who is interested in acquiring their lineage. The buyer of the CBMAI strain must inform the curator of this collection, the commercial value resulting from the development of any product or process of the strain in question, with the collection being responsible for the traceability of the depositor of biological material for signing the benefit sharing agreement between the companies.

• Confidential Deposit (patent or secret deposit): CBMAI also receives biological material for security deposits, of confidential character, upon annual payment. Both the material and the associated information are processed and stored under confidentiality and kept independently from the collection of the public collection.

At the end of the process, both in the open and in the confidential deposit, the depositor will receive a sample (active or lyophilized culture) of the deposited microorganism (depositor’s right culture). In the category of confidential deposit, the depositor is entitled to one sub- culture/liophilized per year, if requested.

Important: depositing a culture with CBMAI can only be completed after signing the Service Agreement and filling out the Deposit Form. Therefore, the client must send an email to the collection’s curator, Dr. Derlene Attili de Angelis (derlene@cpqba.unicamp.br), containing the deposit request, taxonomic identification, the origin of the biological material to be deposited , and a brief justification for depositing with CBMAI. The name of the Institution / Company to which the customer is affiliated and the phone and fax number must be contained in the forwarded email.

Consult the Curatorship for information on open and confidential deposit values.

To access the online deposit documents click here.