Global Pneumococcal Strain Bank Project
The CDC Streptococcus Laboratory in collaboration with numerous partners in academia and industry are currently developing a S.pneumoniae strain bank. The primary purpose of this project is to accumulate an extensive, diverse, well characterized, collection of pneumococcal isolates causing invasive disease and pneumonia, recovered primarily from children in developing countries. Detailed phenotypic (serotyping and antibiograms) and genotypic testing (MLST) on these isolates will be performed and this data and associated demographic information will be posted to this website in the future. The isolate bank will be maintained at CDC, with the primary purpose of making these well-annotated isolates publicly available to commercial and academic vaccine researchers based on reviewed project proposals.
The project is primarily focusing on strains from invasive disease, preferably from children <5 years of age that have been isolated in the past 5 years. Research groups who are interested in collaborating and providing strains for characterization and inclusion in the strain bank can contact Dr. Lesley McGee at lmcgee@cdc.gov for additional information.