Cystic Fibrosis Isolate Core

The Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Isolate Core provides CF bacterial isolates to CF researchers at the University of Washington and other academic institutions.

Seattle Children's has been archiving clinical and research isolates for more than 30 years, and the CF Isolate Archival Collection is currently a part of the microbiology core of an NIH-funded P30 grant to Seattle Children's (NIH P30 DK089507). Until 2010, the maintenance and provision of the isolate collections were funded by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, as a part of their new drug development program, and the Therapeutics Development Network.

Services

  • Provision of isolates
  • Biofilm susceptibility testing
  • Bacterial killing curves

Available Isolates

The collection contains thousands of isolates from patients at the pediatric and adult CF centers at Seattle Children's and the University of Washington Medical Center. The isolates include Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Burkholderia cepacia complex, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Achromobacter species, and Staphylococcus aureus.

Many of the clinical isolates have linked clinical data. Research isolates from multiple studies that may or may not have linked clinical data are also available. We also have a collection of phenotypic panels, including methicillin-resistant and methicillin-susceptible S. aureus and multiple phenotypes of P. aeruginosa.

COLLECTION  DESCRIPTION   DATA AVAILABLE? 
CF clinical isolates Longitudinal isolates from Seattle Children's and UWMC patients (first year of life through young adult) Yes
Natural history study isolates Pseudomonas aeruginosa only (first three years of life; OP and BAL isolates) Yes
Early-late mutator collection Pseudomonas aeruginosa longitudinal isolates (initial and final isolates sequenced; intervening isolates evaluated by PCR-based genotyping) Yes
Research study isolates Isolates both from TDN and non-TDN clinical trials Variable
Phenotypic panels Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA/MRSA/SCV) 
Pseudomonas aeruginosa (mucoid/non-mucoid; susceptible/resistant; early/late) 
Stenotrophomonas maltophilia 
Achromobacter spp. 
Burkholderia cepacia complex		 No

How to Request Isolates

Serial isolates from individuals with CF as well as isolates meeting specific phenotypic criteria (i.e., mucoid, specific antibiotic resistance patterns, early or late in the course of disease) can be requested for CF-related research.

Please email the core staff to request isolates. You will be asked to provide information on your planned studies, to identify your research funding sources and to agree to acknowledge the P30 grant in any publications that result. In return, we will ask you to provide your phenotypic and genotypic results on specific isolates to help enrich our isolate collection.

The CF Isolate Core is headed by Dr. Rafael Hernandez.