The United States is entering an era when, more than ever, the sharing of resources and information might be critical to scientific progress. Every dollar saved by avoiding duplication of efforts and by producing economies of scale will become increasingly important as federal funding enters an era of fiscal restraint. This book focuses on six diverse case studies that share materials or equipment with the scientific community at large: the American Type Culture Collection, the multinational coordinated Arabidopsis thaliana Genome Research Project, the Jackson Laboratory, the Washington Regional Primate Research Center, the Macromolecular Crystallography Resource at the Cornell High-Energy Synchrotron Source, and the Human Genome Center at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The book also identifies common strengths and problems faced in the six cases, and presents a series of recommendations aimed at facilitating resource sharing in biomedical research.

To retain their usefulness, cultures that manufacture economically valuable products must be uncontaminated, viable, and genetically stable. Maintaining Cultures for Biotechnology and Industry gives practical advice necessary to preserve and maintain cells and microorganisms important to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries in ways that ensure they will continue to be able to synthesize those valuable metabolites. This book covers not just those strains currently being used but also those yet to be discovered and engineered.This text is essential for anyone working with cultures who wants to avoid the frustration of losing strains and needs to be able to devise and evaluate new strategies for preservation. - Written by hands-on experts in their respective fields - Contains helpful tables and protocols for preserving or maintaining cells, cultures and viruses - Discusses means to preserve cells by freezing, lyophilization, drying, cyoprotection, spore storage, continuous propagation and subculturing when absolutely necessary, and others - Gives information needed to test cultures for stable retention of important characteristics - Gives principles needed to devise and evaluate preservation strategies for newly identified and newly engineered cells and organisms - Lists culture sources for each class of organism - Includes information for characterizing and monitoring recombinant organisms, especially important because of their propensity for genetic stability - Discusses the history of the continually evolving field of culture preservation - Examines the importance of genetically stable cultures as it relates to maintaining patent positions

Vinegars can be considered as acidic products of special importance for the enri- ment of our diet, and resulting from the desired or controlled oxidation of ethanol containing (liquid) substrates. The traditional use and integration of vinegars in numerous cultures can be traced back to ancient times. In fact, the cultural heritage of virtually every civilization includes one or more vinegars made by the souring action (of micro-organisms) following alcoholic fermentation. It has been do- mented that the Egyptians, Sumerians and Babylonians had experience and tech- cal knowledge in making vinegar from barley and any kind of fruit. Vinegar was very popular both in ancient Greece and Rome, where it was used in food prepa- tions and as remedy against a great number of diseases. In Asia, the first records about vinegar date back to the Zhou Dynasty (1027-221 BC) and probably China’s ancient rice wines may have originally been derived from fruit, for which (malted) rice was substituted later. The historical and geographical success of vinegars is mainly due to the low technology required for their production, and to the fact that several kinds of raw materials rich in sugars may easily be processed to give vinegar. In addition, vi- gars are well-known and accepted as safe and stable commodities that can be c- sumed as beverages, health drinks or added to food as preservatives or as flavo- ing agents.

A first source for traditional methods of microbiology as well as commonly used modern molecular microbiological methods. • Provides a comprehensive compendium of methods used in general and molecular microbiology. • Contains many new and expanded chapters, including a section on the newly important field of community and genomic analysis. • Provides step-by-step coverage of procedures, with an extensive list of references to guide the user to the original literature for more complete descriptions. • Presents methods for bacteria, archaea, and for the first time a section on mycology. • Numerous schematics and illustrations (both color and black and white) help the reader to easily understand the topics presented.

The most authoritative, comprehensive reference in the field. • Sets the standard for state-of-the-science laboratory practice. • A collaborative effort of 22 editors and more than 260 authors from around the world, all experienced researchers and practitioners in medical and diagnostic microbiology. • Includes 149 chapters of the latest research findings, infectious agents, methods, practices, and safety guidelines. • Indispensable to clinical microbiologists, laboratory technologists, and infectious disease specialists in hospitals, clinics, reference laboratories, and more