UKBRCN - Key Persons

Andy sits on the Diagnostics in Bacteriology panel of the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organisation (EPPO), on behalf of Defra, and has participated on expert working groups for Clavibacter michiganensis and Dickeya/Pectobacterium spp. He has represented the UK as a national expert on audit missions for the European Food and Veterinary Office (FVO), and is a member of the European Association of Phytobacteriologists. As curator of one of the largest and most comprehensive international collections of plant pathogenic bacteria, the NCPPB, - a founder collection of the United Kingdom Biological Resource Centres Network (UKBRCN) - he has a wide-ranging and detailed knowledge of all significant bacterial diseases of plants and the legislation around them. Employing his experience and expertise, Andy provides plant bacteriology training to post-graduate students, to bacteriologists overseas, and to the UK Plant Health and Seed Inspectorate.

Anthony Kermode's role within CAB International (CABI) involves the maintenance of CABI's current culture collection as well as preserving newly deposited microorganisms for the long term using liquid nitrogen and freeze drying. In previous employment Anthony has worked at MGS Laboratories Ltd, in the validation of disinfectants and other general microbiology testing. Anthony Kermode is currently building on CABI's long history in preservation research through his PhD, looking at development of optimised cryopreservation regimes for i) microbial consortia / microbiome samples and ii) recalcitrant fungi including fastidious organisms. Exploring means to confirm functionality post preservation.

Job Titles:

• Registered Scientist and Member of the Institute of Food Science

Ayuen graduated from the University of Southampton in 2000 with a BSc in Biochemistry before joining the Public Health Laboratory Service in 2001 as a Healthcare Scientist in the Food, Water and Environmental (FWE) Laboratory at Southampton General Hospital. Ayuen completed an MSc in Public Health Science (Food and Drinking Water) with the University of Hertfordshire in 2009 whilst working at the Health Protection Agency (HPA) FWE laboratory in Colindale, London. Between 2011 and 2016 she worked for Public Health England (formerly HPA) as a Standards Microbiologist producing UK Standards for Microbiology Investigations (UK SMIs) a collection of documents for use in clinical microbiology diagnostic laboratories. Ayuen is a Registered Scientist and member of the Institute of Food Science and Technology, the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease, the Microbiology Society and the Society of Applied Microbiology where she is a member of the magazine editorial team. Her interests span method development/standardisation and quality assurance, with a focus on scientific communication and public engagement.

Job Titles:

• NCYC Head & Business Manager

Job Titles:

• CCAP Curator

Job Titles:

• CCAP Delivery Manager

Christine's chief role is managing the team of the support scientists at The Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS). Her other role as CCAP Delivery Manager involves managing the core delivery of the Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa (CCAP).

Job Titles:

• CABI Director Biological Resources

David Smith PhD FRSB joined CAB International (CABI) in 1974 as a preservation technologist working in the Commonwealth Mycological Institute. Over a 45-year career he developed expertise in the operation and management of living microbial resource collections, preservation technology and development of operational procedures for BRCs. He gained a PhD with Imperial College London University in the long-term preservation of fungi, becoming Curator of CABI Genetic Resources Collection in 1987. Research areas include the freeze-drying of microorganisms, the optimisation of cryopreservation techniques and cryogenic light microscopy for fungi. He has a keen interest in policy concerning microorganisms' access, handling and use, codes of practice for working within the Convention of Biological Diversity and the production of Quality Management Systems for Microbial Resource Collections. He was appointed Director of Biological Resources in 2006 with the role of operations manager for CABI's Bioservices, responsible for the collection, identification, industrial services and a small research team. Now focused on ABS policy, networking and project development. He played a key role in the OECD Biological Resource Centre (BRC) Initiative Task Force, and he has gained relevant global infrastructure experience as General Manager of the Global Biological Resource Centre Network (GBRCN) Demonstration Project (seconded to Germany for 3 years). In the past he has been President of the World Federation for Culture Collections WFCC (2004-2010) and is a former member of the UK Delegation to the OECD Biological Resource Centre Initiative Task Force. David has been an instrumental figure in the development of the Global Biological Resource Centre Network and won the J. Roger Porter Prize of the American Microbiology Society in 2011. He has expertise in Access and Benefit Sharing within the CBD regarding microorganisms and Biosecurity.

Job Titles:

• Head of Business Development

Bryan leads the Business Development and External Communications unit with responsibility for all Culture Collections business and marketing activities. Bryan graduated from The University of Salford in 1984 with a BSc (Hons) in Applied Biology and then went on to complete a PhD at Boehringer Mannheim in Germany (now Roche) entitled screening Microorganisms for new restriction enzymes. Following this he returned to the UK in 1988 and began a career with ECACC as a post doc scientist establishing methods for EBV immortalisation of B lymphocytes; the Human Genetic Cell Collection and molecular DNA profiling of cell lines. During the following 10 years he was Principal Investigator on several UK Medical Research grants concerned with provision of resources for the UK effort as part of the Human Genome Mapping project. In 1997 he obtained a Post Graduate Diploma in Management Studies from the University of Portsmouth which led him to taking on a more commercial role within ECACC concerned with sales, marketing and business development. In 2008 he took on his current role Head of Business Development and External Communications. In his spare time Bryan can be found growing his own fruit and vegetables, singing or treading the boards with his local amateur dramatic society.

Job Titles:

• CCAP Manager and Senior Researcher in Algal Biotechnology

Michael is a phycologist with an interest in all things algae. To date, he has cultivated algae for a variety of purposes including aquaculture feed, bioenergy, bioremediation of nutrients and heavy metals, CO 2 sequestration, and for the production of high-value compounds. His main role is to manage and authorise the CCAP budget and ensure delivery of contracts and reporting. He will also have overall responsibility for the new CCAP-ARIES facility.

Job Titles:

• Manager of the Natural History Museum 's Molecular Collections
• NHM Biobank Manager

Jackie Mackenzie-Dodds is the manager of the Natural History Museum's Molecular Collections facility (biobank), launched in 2012. After graduating from Leeds University in 1986 with BSc (Double 1st Class Honours) Biochemistry and Physiology, Jackie worked in research and development in industry and academia, accumulating over 9 years' and 20 years' experience respectively in biodiversity biobanking (museums and herbaria), collecting, curating and providing high quality bioresources to biodiversity researchers across the world, and biodiversity genetic research, to support taxonomy and phylogeny for species across the Tree of Life. Jackie is an active global biodiversity collections, preservation and research networker; member and organiser of key consortia, committees and working groups including: Global Genome Biodiversity Network (GGBN), Frozen Ark Project Advisory Board Member, European, Middle Eastern and African Society for Biopreservation and Biobanking (ESBB) and International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER) Enviro-Bio Working Groups, SYNTHESYS+ (under CETAF umbrella): EU Museum and Herbarium Molecular Collections and UK Biological Resource Centre Network (UKBRCN), linking non-human and clinical collections e.g. CABI and PHE, including living collections, cell cultures and micro-organisms. Jackie has been an invited speaker at international biodiversity and biobanking symposia worldwide from 2009 to date, involved in NHM Public Engagement and Learning with guided tours of NHM cryofacility and biobank collections for scientific visitors and public, hosting NHM public presentations ‘Nature Live', ‘NHM Lates' and filming for media, educational and interactive presentations, and provision of training courses for biodiversity molecular collections and research (field and lab) worldwide from 2005.

Job Titles:

• Senior Research Leader and Assistant Head

John manages and leads the Seed (at MSB, Wakehurst Place) and Lab-based (at Jodrell Lab., Kew) Collections section. He is responsible for the collection quality of living seeds; collections of extracted DNA and tissue; microscope slides of leaves, wood, pollen and flowers; and the quality and availability of the data associated with them, including the Seed Information Database ( http://data.kew.org/sid/ ). Also maximising availability of collections and data for research and other uses. Personal research includes analysis of data from large, but imperfect datasets to provide decision support for seed collection management and wider ecological questions.

Matthew Ryan PhD is Research Lead Biological Resources and Curator of CAB International, CABI's genetic resources collection, which includes international collections of fungus and bacteria cultures. His research centres on cryopreservation and management of microbial genetic resources. He has a special interest in the legislation and regulatory frameworks governing the handling and use of microorganisms and impacting on microbiome research including ABS (Nagoya Protocol), Biosecurity and Biosafety. Current funded projects include an EU CSA Microbiome support project (as CoI), UK Agricentres (CHAP) and CABI funded projects (as PI). He has pioneered the application of encapsulation-vitrification and Stirling Cycle cryopreservation approaches for fungi (CryoLett 35:63-68). Current PhD students (through Imperial College London and Royal Holloway University) are working on the impacts of climate change on the coffee wilt pathogen, and development of cryopreservation regimes for recalcitrant fungi, microbial consortia and microbiome samples. He recently lead a team of international experts in a major white paper on fungal biological resources to support International Development (WJMB DOI 10.1007/s11274-019-2709-7). Current external roles include the UK Plant Microbiome Initiative (with Rothamsted Research), the UK KTN Microbiome Special Interest Advisory Group, and on the Board of Directors of the International Alliance for Phytobiomes Research.

After completing a degree in Applied Biology (Molecular and Microbiology) at Nottingham Trent University, Samantha studied the ‘Microbial biochemistry of slow sand filters' for her PhD at the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. Since then she has retained an interest in microbial communities and biofilm formation. Thus far, she has had a varied career and has been involved in the microbiological monitoring of waste water treatment plants and coastal waters, lectured in food microbiology, worked on a European Union project to improve the microbiological monitoring of sterilised milk and monitored the quality of beer produced at Guinness.