About Lege

Collecting samples since 1991

About Lege

Blue Biotechnology and Ecotoxicology Culture Collection (LEGE-CC) is a biological resource centre located at Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR), that comprises more than 1100 different cyanobacterial and microalgae strains, obtained since 1991.

LEGE-CC strains were mainly isolated from Portuguese ecosystems (including Madeira and Azores Islands) but also from other countries worldwide (e.g. Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Morocco, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Cape Verde). The fact that most part of our strains were obtained from Portugal associated with rich phylogenetic diversity among cyanobacteria and microalgae groups confers uniqueness to LEGE-CC.

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Our strains are being screened over the years for a diverse range of purposes and targeting different applications and activities (e.g. anti-cancer, anti-biofouling, anti-microbial, anti-biofilm, anti-obesogenic and related diseases, cosmetics, food, etc.).

Several studies demonstrated that our LEGE-CC stains have potential and effective capacity to produce a diverse array of metabolites, including toxins (e.g. microcystins, anatoxin, cylindrospermopsin and BMAA) or newly discovered molecules (Portoamides, Hierridin B and C, Bartolosides, Nocuolin A, etc).

LEGE-CC is member of World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC), European Culture Collections’ Organisation (ECCO) and it is also part of the Research Infrastructure EMBRC.PT.

As other biological resource centers worldwide, LEGE-CC seeks to provide several services (e.g. provision of starter cultures for diverse purposes, isolation and identification of strains, cyanotoxins analysis, cryopreservation, training courses, etc.).