HISTORY

CCP was founded by Prof. Dr. Luísa Peixe, who started preserving bacterial strains at the beginning of her PhD (1992) at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Porto, where she works until today as a Full Professor and leader of the BACT_DRUGS research lab.

She began her research in antimicrobial resistant Escherichia coli isolates in the old facilities of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Porto. Subsequently, she enlarged the studies on antimicrobial resistance to other pathogens (e.g. Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and under the One Health approach. She has extensive expertise in different clinically relevant bacterial groups, focusing on features involved in their adaptability to different niches and stressors (e.g., ecology and dynamics of antibiotic resistance) and pathogenicity. The adaptability and deleterious effect of low urinary tract bacteria is her most recent interest.

Over time, her interests extended to bacterial classification based on polyphasic approaches. Several new species of different genera and isolated from human and non-human sources have been described. 

Her research and international collaborations have provided a rich and diverse set of strains that make the bulk of CCP collection.