U.K. introduces on-line microorganism database

Abstract

Searching key facts relating to microorganisms is an increasingly important aspect of biotechnology research. Apart from the drudgery involved, the task can be hap-hazard. Now the U.K. government is providing a means of obtaining such information from remote computer terminals. Known as MiCIS, an acronym for Microbial Culture Information Service, the new service enables subscribers to search its databank rapidly for information on microorganisms, or to pinpoint organisms with certain properties. MiCIS is offered by the Laboratory of the Government Chemist, an arm of the U.K/s Department of Trade & Industry. It incorporates data on more than 30,000 microbial strains isolated, characterized, and stored largely by Britain's nine national culture collections located in various parts of the country. It could be the forerunner of a Europewide computer database system designed along similar lines, and eventually of a global service. This is the first service of its kind to go 'live7 in Europe, ...