American Type Culture Collection

The American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) is the world's largest microbial preservation center. The ATCC is a private, non-profit biological resource center. Its mission focuses on the acquisition, authentication, production, preservation, and development of standard reference materials for microorganisms and cell lines. The organization possesses more than 4,000 human, animal, and plant cell lines. The ATCC preserves 18,000 strains across 900 genera, as well as 2,000 animal virus strains and 1,000 plant virus strains.