About the Japan Antimicrobial Resistant Bacterial Bank

The Antimicrobial Resistance Research Center (AMR-RC) was established in April 2017 as an organization within National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID), Japan to serve as a comprehensive think-tank on AMR, based on the National Action Plan (NAP) on AMR (2016-2020)(*1). The AMR-RC is engaged in surveillance of antimicrobial-resistant microorganisms in Japan and overseas, research on resistance mechanisms, development of new technologies that combat AMR, support for hospital countermeasures against infectious diseases, and quality testing of antibiotics distributed in the market. The Japan Antimicrobial Resistant Bacterial Bank (JARBB) was established in 2019 at the NIID in accordance with the NAP (2016-2020) in order to promote the conservation of antimicrobial-resistant bacterial isolates and the use of strains in industry, the government, and academia. JARBB stores approximately 170,000 strains (as of 2021), including antimicrobial-resistant strains collected by the center's own Japan Antimicrobial Resistant Bacterial Surveillance (JARBS) linked to Japan Nosocomial Infections Surveillance (JANIS) and strains deposited by companies and universities. We will select a set of strains from these available strains to promote their use in industry, government, and academia, and to provide them as an "antimicrobial-resistant bacterial panel". The antimicrobial-resistant bacterial panel is intended to serve as the following three types of panels.

  • Basic Research Panel:For basic research such as the analysis of properties and development of detection methods for antimicrobial-resistant bacteria.
  • Drug Development Research Panel:For the development of diagnostics, prophylaxis, and therapeutics for antimicrobial-resistant bacterial infections.
  • Quality Control Panel:For quality control in hospital laboratories.

The number of panels we can offer is limited at this time, but we plan to add more in the future. We welcome comments and requests from people who are considering practical use of our products. (Contact Us). The JARBB also provides a panel of strains owned by the CDC & FDA Antibiotic Resistance (AR) Isolate Bank(*2), which is operated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), for use in Japan (Panels from CDC & FDA AR Isolate Bank).

We hope that the Japan Antimicrobial Resistant Bacterial Bank will be fully utilized in the future to advance AMR countermeasures in Japan, and that the results of new AMR research will be disseminated from Japan to the world, leading to the development and introduction of new drugs.

12/09/2022, Director of the Antimicrobial Resistance Research Center Motoyuki Sugai