-HUMB-

Member holdings

Group(s) of biological resources stored in the collection: bacteria, yeasts.

  • More than 21,000 strains (over 120 genera and over 350 species).
  • Most numerous bacteria include staphylococci (>8000) and lactobacilli (>3000).
  • Subcollections: lactic acid bacteria and opportunistic bacteria (the latter mostly include bacteria related to neonatal intensive care units and strains from antibiotic resistance studies).
  • Subcollections are more thoroughly described in Table 1 of the paper: doi: 10.1128/mra.00758-25.

    • Services offered

    Strains are available for academic research under Material Transfer Agreement (MTA). Eligible collaborators include accredited academic institutions, publicly funded research organizations, and non-profit entities engaged in scientific research. Commercial entities may be considered on a case-by-case basis, subject to separate agreements. All collaborations are expected to result in shared scientific outputs, such as publications, dissertations, or patents.

    Research

  • Lactic acid bacteria in HUMB form an important basis for probiotic development. Patented strains include L. fermentum ME-3 that is available in several food and pharmaceutical products.
  • Opportunistic bacteria in HUMB originate from different specimens of healthy and diseased subjects. In majority of them, properties have been detected like antibiotic susceptibility, resistance-associated genes or typing patterns.
  • Over 40 PhD and MSc theses have been defended and over 400 papers published using and/or supplementing the collection.
  • Publications of our own research are listed on the HUMB webpage: https://eemb.ut.ee/eng/humb_english_publication_list.php
  • A paper describing the HUMB collection: Mändar R, Mändar H, Rööp T, Mikelsaar M. Collection of human bacteria at University of Tartu, Estonia. Microbiol Resour Announc. 2025 Dec 23:e0075825. doi: 10.1128/mra.00758-25.