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About the Antimicrobial Resistance Isolate Bank

Located at and managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in collaboration with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Antimicrobial Resistance Isolate Bank (AR Isolate Bank) helps laboratory experts find the latest and highest-quality antimicrobial-resistant isolates. Registered customers can order “isolates for action” that include a subset of known microbial threats collected from CDC’s ongoing surveillance, outbreak activities and external collaborators. CDC then combines these samples into panels for testing.

Because antimicrobial resistance (AR) occurs as part of a natural evolution process, it can be slowed, but not stopped. Infection prevention strategies, new diagnostic tests and antibiotic or antifungal drugs can support earlier diagnoses and more effective treatment options that can slow AR and protect people.

The AR Isolate Bank aids in the fight against antimicrobial resistance through these groups:

  • Microbiologists and lab directors use AR Isolate Bank samples to validate new lab tests, which can help improve patient care.
  • Drug and diagnostic manufacturers use AR Isolate Bank samples to challenge new products they have created like, diagnostic assays and new antibiotics, and to accelerate research and development.
  • Researchers use AR Isolate Bank samples to build solutions against the latest AR threats.

Since its launch in July 2015, the AR Isolate Bank has provided more than 10,000 isolate panels to more than 2,000 recognized institutions.

Each order includes:

  • Information about isolate susceptibility and/or resistance profile(s).
  • Known resistance biomarkers, source, collection year (if available).
  • Publicly available Whole Genome Sequence data posted on the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).

Learn more about CDC’s work to combat antibiotic resistance.

Other Resources

The CDC and FDA AR Isolate Bank is a unique resource because it delivers curated isolate panels from CDC’s vast collection of antimicrobial-resistant organisms. Individual isolates and isolate sets are also available from other sources:

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