From September 26 to October 1, the 12th International Conference of Culture Collections (ICCC-12) was held in Brazil attended by over 200 professionals in microbiology around the world. Prof. DONG Xiuzhu, Director of State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources of Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMCAS) participated in the conference. It focused on microbial resource collection and management, impact of information and communication technology on resource centers, etc.

In the closing ceremony, the 13th ICCC was announced to be held by IMCAS in Beijing in 2013. As one of the most influential conferences in global microbial resource, the past 12 conferences were all held by world-renowned culture collection centers. Prof. DONG, elected to be member of executive committee of World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC), represented the host of ICCC-13 to receive the souvenir badge of ICCC and introduced the plan and facility support for the new conference.

World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC) is concerned with the collection, authentication, maintenance and distribution of cultures of microorganisms and cultured cells. It organizes the ICCC every four years.