Technical and scientific expertise
- Isolation and purification of microorganisms (prokaryotes, eukaryotes and viruses) from food and environmental matrices, but also from animals and plants
- Identification and characterisation of microorganisms by conventional and molecular techniques
- Conservation of microorganisms in a stable manner – from short to very long term – and according to ad hoc technologies
- Management – according to the appropriate international standards – of collections (input, output, management and distribution)
- Valorisation of microorganisms in the agricultural, agri-food and medical sectors, through the implementation of screening for biocontrol agents and/or antagonistic molecules, and, more generally, for all activities of interest
- Taxonomy
- Applied microbiology
- Biotechnology
- Training of users, students, PhD students and researchers
Main equipment
Over 50,000 isolates of prokaryotic and eukaryotic microorganisms.
- Viruses: bacteriophages, plant viruses and viroids
- Bacteria: food (including pathogens), environmental, phytopathogenic, and others
- Archaea including halo-archaea
- Protists
- Chromatids
- Fungi: plant pathogens, filamentous, yeasts and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF)
Applications
- Study of the diversity of microorganisms in the environment and agriculture and in association with food
- Industrial applications:
- fermentation
- animal feed
- biopesticides
- biofertilisers
- screening of microbial molecules of interest (antibiotics and enzymes)
Services available to
- UCLouvain students and researchers
- Non-UCLouvain parties