Importance of Microbiology Teaching and Microbial Resource Management for Sustainable Futures

Dr Kurtböke is an internationally reputed actinomycetologist and she has been in the field of biodiscovery since 1982 conducting research into discovery of novel and potent threpeutic compounds produced by actinomycetes in Turkey, Italy, the UK and Australia. Her most significant contribution has been the development of a novel isolation technique that selectively cultures rare actinomycetes with industrial importance which was adopted and applied by leading pharmaceutical companies since the 1990s. She has established bio-resource libraries for joint screening ventures with leading pharmaceutical companies in different settings since 1990s. Dr Kurtböke’s methodological strength in the field of actinomycetology played a key role in the detection of novel actinomycetes and contributed towards the establishment of yet another microbial library of bioactive actinomycetes at the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) in Queensland, Australia since 2001. The library has been used for research and teaching activities at the USC as well as in partnership with regional, national and international collaborators for discovery of new drugs, agrobiologicals, enzymes and environmentally-friendly biotechnological innovations.

Dr Kurtböke has been a member of the Biodiscovery Industry Panel established by the AusBiotech and DEHWA which networks Australian biodiscovery operators. She was also one of the founding members of the Australian Microbial Resources Research Network currently linked with the Atlas of Living Australia and implements a Biolomics system for microbial data sharing. She has also been an active member of the World Federation of Culture Collections (WFCC) including serving as the Vice-President of the Federation (2010-2013). WFCC provides a nest to the World Data Centre of Microorganisms (WDCM) which maintains large volumes of data from global culture collections. WFCC also strategically links with the OECD's Global Biological Resources Initiative and the Global Biological Information Facility for long term maintenance and conservation of microorganisms and related information. The fortcoming book titled Microbial Resources-from functional existence in nature to industrial applications edited by Dr Kurtbӧke will bring experts in the fields of microbial ecology, taxonomy, culture collections and industrial microbiology together to highlight the importance of microbial genetic resources for global sustainability and biotechnological innovations.