What Services Does BCCM Provide Beyond Strain Preservation?

Updated

BCCM (the Belgian Coordinated Collections of Micro-organisms, at bccm.belspo.be) is more than a culture collection: it is a consortium of biological resource centres that also offers identification, sequencing and bioinformatics work, training and advisory services, and participation in Belgian and international research networks. Whether these services fit your project depends on the organism group and the specific collection within BCCM that you approach, so the practical step is to identify the right member collection and contact it directly.

The structure behind the services

BCCM is not a single laboratory but a coordinated group of specialised collections, each with its own organism focus and scientific staff. That structure explains why the service offer is broad: expertise in, for example, bacteria, fungi or yeasts sits with different teams, and each team runs its own service portfolio alongside its preservation work.

For a user, this has one practical consequence: the service you need is usually delivered by one member collection rather than by "BCCM" as a whole. The central website acts as the entry point and directory.

Service areas beyond preservation

Identification and characterisation

Beyond simply storing a strain, BCCM collections can help determine what an unknown isolate is. Typical work includes phenotypic and molecular characterisation of bacteria, fungi and yeasts, using methods such as sequencing of marker genes and comparison against reference data. This is the service to consider when you have an environmental, industrial or clinical isolate and need a reliable name or a confirmed identity.

Sequencing and bioinformatics

Molecular identification work depends on sequencing and on the analysis that follows it. BCCM's offer in this area covers the generation of sequence data and its interpretation against curated reference material held by the collections — an advantage over generic sequencing providers, because the reference strains and the taxonomic expertise are in the same organisation.

Training and advice

BCCM collections provide training and advisory support in areas such as cultivation, preservation, quality control of biological material and taxonomy. This is relevant if you are setting up a laboratory collection, need to improve strain maintenance, or want staff trained in handling specific organism groups. Because the offer differs per collection, the specific course or advisory topic should be confirmed with the relevant member.

Research collaboration

The collections take part in research projects, which means collaboration can go beyond a one-off service request. If your project involves taxonomy, biodiversity, reference material or method development, discussing a joint project with the relevant collection is a realistic route.

Belgian and international network context

BCCM operates within the Belgian federal science policy context (the belspo.be domain) and is connected to wider European and international networks of biological resource centres. For users, this matters in two ways:

  • It supports the quality and comparability of reference material and data.
  • It makes it easier to route a request to the appropriate collection, including when the material or expertise you need sits outside a single collection.

How to reach the right service

  1. Go to bccm.belspo.be and review the member collections listed there.
  2. Match your material or question to the collection whose organism group fits (for example, bacteria versus fungi versus yeasts).
  3. Contact that collection directly through the contact details published on the site, describing your sample, the service you need, and your timeline.
  4. Confirm scope, feasibility and any conditions with the collection before sending material.

Common sticking points

  • Approaching "BCCM" generically. Requests move faster when addressed to the specific member collection.
  • Assuming all services are available everywhere. Each collection has its own portfolio; a service offered by one may not be offered by another.
  • Skipping the pre-submission exchange. For identification work especially, agreeing on the question and the material in advance avoids unusable results.

What this means for your decision

If you need a strain, BCCM's preservation role is the obvious starting point. If you need an identification, sequence-based characterisation, training or a research partner, the same organisation can be relevant — but the value depends on choosing the collection that matches your organism and question. The site is the directory; the individual collection is the service provider.