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Britain's collection of over 42,000 microbe cultures is a "world-class national collection in embryo" which should be more centrally administrated and better exploited commercially, says a report from a committee chaired by Roger Whittenbury, of the University of Warwick. Commissioned by the Office of Science and Technology, it says that the 11 publicly funded microbial collections should form a single organisation with three centres, and overall responsibility lying with the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.