SAMS news room

Algae scientists from Germany benefited from a week at SAMS' Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa (CCAP) where they learned new skills in upscaling, analysing and maintaining algal cultures.

The Central Collection of Algal Cultures at the University of Duisburg-Essen, led by Prof. Bank Beszteri and curator Dr Olga Matantseva, has built a new team and chose CCAP to help upskill their staff.

Dr Matanseva said: "CCAP is one of the top collections in the world, one of the largest and one where the various processes are organised very well. We also share challenges. Both CCAC and CCAP have big collections and it is not an easy task to maintain that, so it is good to have support from a collection that is solving these issues."

The link between the two collections was established by former CCAP manager Christine Campbell who sits on the board of CCAC.

CCAP is a Biological Resource Centre located within SAMS, which has hosted the purpose-built lab since 2004. The CCAP is more than 100 years old and maintains a collection of around 3,200 strains of algae and protozoa. It is supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), part of UK Research and Innovation, as a National Capability service.