ATCC Answers World Health Organization’s Call to Arms in the Race Against Antimicrobial Resistance

ATCC, a global leader in biological materials development, management, and standards, in partnership with the Institute for Life Science Entrepreneurship (ILSE) and the ATCC Center for Translational Microbiology (ATCC-CTM), announced today the launch of the ATCC Global Priority Superbugs collection. This panel of Gram-negative clinical isolates was specifically sourced and developed to address the needs of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) research and development.

This program supports the response to the 2017 World Health Organization (WHO) list of priority pathogens that pose the greatest threat to human health due to multidrug resistance. This unique panel of globally sourced pathogens offers extended features such as annotated whole genome sequence and MIC data, representing an opportunity for drug and assay developers to focus on critical attributes such as genetic and phenotypic resistance markers. Further, ATCC has authenticated and characterized this panel using methodologies hailed as gold standards by key industry leaders.

“The ATCC Global Priority Superbugs collection demonstrates the first fruits of a multi-year, multi-million dollar partnership between ATCC and ILSE through ATCC-CTM,” said Joseph Leonelli, Ph.D., Vice President of the ATCC Microbiology and Government Solutions business. “As a result of this partnership, we have been able to expand our capabilities to not only bring new standards to market, but also to transfer more data to the foreground for clinically relevant models, accelerating the advancement of new detection assays and novel therapeutics for AMR.”

The partnership between ATCC and ILSE, initiated in 2015 under the leadership of Raymond H. Cypess, DVM, Ph.D., and CEO of ATCC, resulted in the creation of the ATCC-CTM center of excellence, which focuses on breakthrough research in microbiology. The ATCC Global Priority Superbugs collection represents the first commercial product launched by ATCC as a result of this partnership.

“By tapping into our diverse network of key opinion leaders, strain providers, and bioinformatics experts, we have developed both the methodology and technology to rapidly source and extensively characterize clinical isolates with relevant genetic and phenotypic AMR markers,” stated Keith Bostian, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of ILSE and Dean of the NJCSTM (“STEM”) program at Kean University. “The speed at which we can now identify clinically relevant pathogens will propel AMR research.”

Additional AMR panels are on the horizon for ATCC, envisioned as additional standardized laboratory strain toolsets for in vitro and in vivo studies of innovative therapeutic, diagnostic, and epidemiological approaches for combatting AMR-related disease.

ATCC is a premier global biological materials and information resource and standards organization and the leading developer and supplier of authenticated cell lines, microorganisms, and associated data for academia, industry, and government. With a history of scientific contributions spanning nearly a century, ATCC offers an unmatched combination of being the world’s largest and most diverse collection of biological reference materials and data, and is a mission-driven, trusted partner that supports and encourages scientific collaboration. ATCC products, services, partnerships, and people provide the global scientific community with credible, advanced, model systems to support complex research and innovations in basic science, drug discovery, translational medicine, and public health. ATCC is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with headquarters in Manassas, Virginia, and a research and technology center of excellence in Gaithersburg, Maryland. 

Contact: Kim Testa, senior director, Corporate Communications & Public Affairs, ATCC, [email protected]

The ATCC Center for Translational Microbiology is a center of excellence created by ATCC and ILSE to focus on key challenges in current translational microbiology, including antimicrobial resistance, synthetic biology, microbial bioinformatics, and the microbiome. Research laboratories and staff are located at ILSE facilities within the state-of-the-art New Jersey Center for Science, Technology & Mathematics (NJCSTM) building at Kean University in Union, NJ. Visit ATCC-CTM online at www.ilsebio.com/atcc-ctm.

The Institute for Life Science Entrepreneurship (ILSE) is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit translational research institute founded in 2014. The Institute’s mission is to bridge the gap between academic and industrial science via the creation of a regional science, business, and education ecosystem that foster identification of early innovation and expedites its translation into medically and commercially viable solutions, developing a culture of entrepreneurship, and training the region's next generations of entrepreneurs. Visit ILSE online at www.ilsebio.com.