ATCC Standards Program

Mission
The program mission is to strengthen the ATCC leadership position as the premier bioresource center by creating and maintaining biological standards that protect public interests and provide quality reference material, education, accreditation and certification services to the industry. Through promotion of procedural standards with independent and third party review, ATCC will endeavor to assure the application and enforcement of these standards and thereby validate the quality and integrity of services associated with biological products including their acquisition, authentication, preservation, development and distribution. Products will be developed to reinforce the importance of passage number limitation and enhanced authentication to retain reference value status. The standards program is also charged with education of both government and regulatory agencies and private standards development organizations on the importance of reference material and properly authenticated material for biological research and product development.

Many ATCC cultures are specified by standard-setting organizations and government agencies for use in their official assays and tests. Manufacturers of microbial identification systems also specify ATCC microorganisms for the quality testing of instrumentation, kits or reagents. The ATCC Standards Resource^® provides a Web-based tool by which these procedural standards and commercial systems are cross-referenced with recommended ATCC cultures. The searchable database enables the customer to easily find and purchase the ATCC cultures associated with standards and protocols.

A public health incident occurred in 2005 regarding the accidental release of a non-circulating H2N2 influenza strain into a viral proficiency panel. Although ATCC was in no way responsible for this hazardous event, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) requested help from ATCC in ensuring a similar event does not recur. The ATCC Proficiency Standard™ program was developed to establish ordering and licensing processes that address the needs for security and traceability. The searchable database, available to registered Proficiency Standard participants, allows easy access to find and purchase ATCC Proficiency Standard materials.

Watch for additional ATCC Standards initiatives that are coming soon!

For more information about our Standards program, contact standards@atcc.org.