Description :
BCCM/IHEM is a fungal culture collection specialised in medical and veterinary isolates. It gathers almost 15000 strains representing more than 350 genera and 1200 species of Ascomycetes, Basidiomycetes and Zygomycetes. The majority are human and animal pathogens, allergenic strains, mycotoxin producing species or various contaminants, isolated from clinical cases or from the human environment in general.
More specifically, fungal strains of the BCCM/IHEM collection are:
- Species known to cause diseases and isolated from human or animal patients or their environment
- New species described in the literature and presenting (potential) health risks
- Pathogens reported in case studies
- Known or probable allergenic strains isolated from the indoor and outdoor human environments
- Strains displaying exceptional characteristics (e.g. aberrant morphology, resistance towards antifungal drugs)
- Species producing mycotoxins (notably in food and indoor environments)
- Contaminants of the human and animal environment (e.g. from food, end products, indoor facilities, materials)
The BCCM/IHEM collection accepts pathogens up to the class of risk 3.
The BCCM/IHEM-collection has incorporated the entire collection of Raymond Vanbreuseghem (RV-collection) which was formerly housed at the Institute of Tropical Medicine (Antwerp) and includes numerous rare isolates from tropical regions.
BCCM/IHEM is currently also integrating the fungal collection from Janssen Pharmaceutica, in its public collection.
BCCM/IHEM provides the following services:
- Public, safe and patent deposit
- Distribution of strains and DNA extracts
- Analyses
- Courses and trainings
- Collaboration and consultancy
Accession, control, preservation, storage and supply of fungi and related information in the frame of public, safe and patent deposits are ISO 9001:2015 certified.
The control of viability, identity and purity on the batches for release, are performed according to the ISO 17025 standard.
The collection is also ISO 14001 certified for its environmental policy. The collection is committed to a sustainable management of its activities.
