The project brings together national key players providing environmentally related biological data and services to develop the ‘German Federation for Biological Data' (GFBio). The overall goal is to provide a sustainable, service oriented, national data infrastructure facilitating data sharing and stimulating data intensive science in the fields of biological and environmental research.
The DSMZ is the most comprehensive biological resource center worldwide. Being one of the world's largest collections, the DSMZ currently comprises more than 73,700 items, including about 31,900 different bacterial and 6,600 fungal strains, 840 human and animal cell lines, 1,500 plant viruses and antisera, 700 bacteriophages and 19,000 different types of bacterial genomic DNA. All biological materials accepted in the DSMZ collection are subject to extensive quality control and physiological and molecular characterization by our central services. In addition, DSMZ provides an extensive documentation and detailed diagnostic information on the biological materials. The unprecedented diversity and quality management of its bioresources render the DSMZ an internationally renowned supplier for science, diagnostic laboratories, national reference centers, as well as industrial partners.