Overview
The BCMM's Microbial Culture Facility provides access to equipment and trained staff to meet all your cellular microbial culture-based needs. Our facility can accommodate isolation, identification and culture of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria and fungi.
The facility offers services such as the targeted isolation of strains, antibiotic susceptibility profiling, facilitating genomic and biochemical characterization of microbial isolates via the BCMM CoLab Incubators, and strain procurement and expansion from the BCMM strain repository. The facility can also assist with isolation of complex specimens samples, such as stool or mucus, and provide guidance on microbiological culturing workflows for a diverse range of specimen types.
We are actively working to expand our services to better support the needs of the wider UCSF research community.
Services and Pricing
Currently, the facility offers the following services and approved recharge rates, effective July 1, 2023.
- Requester use of BCMM anaerobe chamber. Requesters use of the chamber (not including any materials or the strain of interest); free 30-minute training required.
- BCMM staff use of anaerobe chamber. BCMM staff use the chamber for requested projects (not including any materials or the strain/samples of interest).
- Sample to plate targeted isolation (per strain)*. What’s included: Development of culture plan, BCMM medias, media creation, BCMM use of the anaerobe chamber (if needed).
- Procurement of strain from BCMM culture library (per strain). What’s included: Development of culture plan, BCMM medias, media creation, BCMM use of the anaerobe chamber (if needed).
* We will use best practice culture protocols to isolate your strain of interest. However, we highly recommend that you have the strain sequenced by the Microbial Genomics CoLab Incubator to confirm identity. The Quantitative Metabolite Analysis Center can also provide a complete metabolite profile. We can facilitate transfer of your isolates for additional characterization.
| Services: | Units: | Internal Rates: | External Non-Profit Rates: | External For-Profit Rates: |
| Isolation | ||||
| Anaerobes (user provides agar plates), 1st strain | per sample | $446.70 | $562.85 | $647.28 |
| Aerobes (user provides agar plates), 1st strain | per sample | $261.27 | $329.20 | $378.59 |
| Media and agar plates surcharge, 1st strain | per sample | $130.38 | $164.27 | $188.91 |
| Agar plates surcharge, user provides media, 1st strain | per sample | $76.03 | $95.80 | $110.17 |
| Anaerobes (user provides agar plates), 2nd-15th strain | per sample | $182.68 | $230.18 | $264.71 |
| Aerobes (user provides agar plates), 2nd-15th strain | per sample | $83.70 | $105.47 | $121.28 |
| Media and agar plates surcharge, 2nd-15th strain | per sample | $99.27 | $125.08 | $143.84 |
| Agar plates surcharge, user provides media, 2nd-15th strain | per sample | $72.10 | $90.84 | $104.47 |
| Large sample set surcharge (>15 samples provided) | per project | $262.37 | $330.58 | $380.17 |
| Procurement | ||||
| Anaerobes (user provides agar plates) | per sample | $194.31 | $244.83 | $306.04 |
| Aerobes (user provides agar plates) | per sample | $99.31 | $125.14 | $156.42 |
| Media and agar plates surcharge | per sample | $103.47 | $130.37 | $162.96 |
| Agar plates surcharge, user provides media | per sample | $96.22 | $121.24 | $151.55 |
| Anaerobic Chamber (hourly) | per hour | $107.70 | $135.70 | $156.06 |
| Plate Reader (hourly) | per hour | $69.80 | $87.94 | $101.13 |
| Project Management (hourly) | per hour | $137.31 | $173.02 | $198.97 |
| Technician Time (hourly) | per hour | $103.95 | $130.98 | $150.62 |
| Special Consumables | per unit | $91.51 | $115.30 | $132.60 |
Note: The pricing listed above is our current pricing. However, pricing is adjusted semi-annually and is not guaranteed. For projects that will be processed >3 months from the time of quote generation, we suggest that you add a 10-15% pricing buffer to account for increasing service costs. Actual pricing will be determined at the time the work will be completed by the facility.
BCMM microbial strain repository
The BCMM is continuing to expand their repository of human-associated microbial isolates which currently contains bacterial and fungal strains from over 100 genera.
To determine strains currently housed in the BCMM repository, search our strain catalogue.
We welcome investigator contributions to our repository. Depositing strains into the repository fuels the growth of this campus-wide resource and provides an opportunity to store critical microbial isolates outside your lab.
READY TO GET STARTED? SUBMIT A REQUEST ON ILAB.
Meet our team
Rahim Khan, PhD
Manager
Jenny Lee
Research Associate
Frequently asked questions
How are samples delivered to the facility?
How should I acknowledge use of the facility?
