ATCC, the American Type Culture Collection, is a private, nonprofit biological resource center and standards organization founded in 1925. It supplies authenticated biomaterials and related resources to life science research, and its reference materials are cited as standards by the US FDA, USDA, the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute, the US Pharmacopeia, the European Pharmacopeia and the WHO. The organization holds what it describes as the world's largest and most diverse collection of human and animal cell products, alongside molecular genomic tools and authenticated microbial materials.
ATCC's technical work spans cell authentication, molecular genomics, microbiology, biorepository services and bioproduction. Its laboratory services include cell line authentication using Droplet Digital PCR, CRISPR and next-generation sequencing, production of master and working cell banks for research and bioproduction, biomaterial deposit services, and a cGMP-compliant commercial biorepository.
The organisation works with public-sector clients through ATCC Federal Solutions, which lends expertise to federal agencies on global health, infectious diseases, biodefense and noncommunicable diseases. This serves a wider mission of supporting the life science research community, with an internal emphasis on quality, authentication and scientific standards.
ATCC operates globally from a headquarters and bioproduction facility in Manassas, Virginia, with research and technology centers of excellence in Gaithersburg, Maryland and Germantown, Maryland.
