Date of Release: 17 January 2000
For Immediate Use

NCYC goes global 

UK-based Cara Technology has signed an agreement with the prestigious National Collection of Yeast Cultures (NCYC) to market and sell their brewing yeast services world-wide. Under the agreement, Cara Technology will have responsibility for developing NCYC's DNA fingerprinting and confidential safe deposit services within the brewing sector.

The move represents an important step for the NCYC, which forms part of the UK's leading food research establishment, the Institute of Food Research (IFR) and its commercial arm, IFR Enterprises Limited. This is the first time NCYC have used a third party to commercialize their services.

Speaking of the agreement, IFR's Director, Professor Peter Schroeder, said "For more than half a Century the NCYC has served the UK brewing industry, providing secure, confidential storage of commercial brewing yeast strains, and advanced strain typing services. Today, we are at the cutting edge of yeast technology, with considerable expertise in the molecular typing of brewing yeasts. While our customers are mostly UK companies, our services have international appeal. Through our partnership with Cara Technology we hope to make them more accessible".

Dr Ian Roberts, the NCYC's Curator, added "The NCYC has the largest collection of brewing yeasts in the world, and we have fingerprinted all of them and included them in our database. Now brewers anywhere in the world can compare their yeast to any one of more than 400 commercial strains."

The NCYC yeast services complement those currently offered by Cara Technology, which include consultancy, training, and contract R&D. The Company recently completed the construction of its 2000 sq ft research laboratory in East Grinstead, UK.

• The mission of the Institute of Food Research is to carry out independent basic, and strategic research on food safety, quality, nutrition and health. It is a company limited by guarantee, with charitable status, grant aided by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). The Institute is based on the Norwich Research Park

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