The ''Westerdijk Institute'', or Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, is part of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

. The institute was renamed on 10 February 2017, after

Johanna Westerdijk Johanna Westerdijk (; 4 January 1883 – 15 November 1961) was a Dutch plant pathologist and the first female professor in the Netherlands. Early life Johanna Westerdijk, called "Hans" () by friends, was born on 4 January 1883 in Nieuwer-Amstel ...

, the first female professor in the Netherlands and director of the institute from 1907 to 1958. The former name of the institute was CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre or Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures (''Central Bureau of Fungal Cultures'' in English). Despite the name change the collection maintained by the institute remains the CBS collections and the use of CBS numbers for the strains continues. The institute is located in Utrecht Science Park, a suburb of

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

. Before it had been located between offices at the university in

Delft Delft () is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, and The Hague, to the northwest. Together with them, it is part of both the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolita ...

and in

Baarn Baarn () is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, near Hilversum in the province of Utrecht. The municipality of Baarn The municipality of Baarn consists of the following towns: Baarn, Eembrugge, Lage Vuursche. The town of Baarn ...

. CBS was established in 1904 as a collection of living

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately fr ...

and

algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular micr ...

at the Eleventh

International Botanical Congress International Botanical Congress (IBC) is an international meeting of botanists in all scientific fields, authorized by the International Association of Botanical and Mycological Societies (IABMS) and held every six years, with the location rotati ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. Since 2002

Pedro Willem Crous Pedro Willem Crous (born 2 November 1963) is a South African mycologist and plant pathologist. Study In 1985 he obtained a B.Sc. in forestry at the University of Stellenbosch. In 1988 he obtained his M.Sc.Agric. cum laude at the same univer ...

has been director of CBS as the successor of Dirk van der Mei. Since its inception the institute has built one of the world's largest collections of

yeasts Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constitut ...

and

bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were am ...

. The collection serves as an International standard for

microbiologists A microbiologist (from Greek ) is a scientist who studies microscopic life forms and processes. This includes study of the growth, interactions and characteristics of microscopic organisms such as bacteria, algae, fungi, and some types of para ...

ecologists This is a list of notable ecologists. A-D * John Aber (USA) * Aziz Ab'Saber ( Brazil) * Charles Christopher Adams (USA) * Warder Clyde Allee (USA) * Herbert G. Andrewartha ( Australia) * Sarah Martha Baker ( UK) * Fakhri A. Bazzaz (USA) ...

and

geneticists A geneticist is a biologist or physician who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a scientist or a lecturer. Geneticists may perform general research on genetic processes ...

. The institute is roughly divided into two parts: Collection Management and Research. Researchers carry out investigations in

taxonomy (biology) In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon) and these groups are give ...

and

evolutionary biology Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes (natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life ...

of fungi,

ecological Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

and

genomic Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes as well as its hierarchical, three-dim ...

issues are often involved. The institute also acts as a centre of expertise for questions related to fungi,

and

from scientists, business, government and the public. The institute also organises courses in general

mycology Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their genetic and biochemical properties, their taxonomy and their use to humans, including as a source for tinder, traditional medicine, food, and entheogen ...

medical mycology Pathogenic fungi are fungi that cause disease in humans or other organisms. Approximately 300 fungi are known to be pathogenic to humans. Markedly more fungi are known to be pathogenic to plant life than those of the animal kingdom. The study of fu ...

, mycology relating to food and to the

built environment The term built environment refers to human-made conditions and is often used in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, public health, sociology, and anthropology, among others. These curated spaces provide the setting for human ...

. The CBS collection has been recognised as a repository of proprietary molds, yeasts and bacteria. The Institute carries out identifications of

microorganisms A microorganism, or microbe,, ''mikros'', "small") and ''organism'' from the el, ὀργανισμός, ''organismós'', "organism"). It is usually written as a single word but is sometimes hyphenated (''micro-organism''), especially in olde ...

for third parties and advises on problems caused by fungi and yeasts. Presently there are eight research groups:
Applied and Industrial Mycology
(Jos Houbraken)
CBS Culture Collection
(Gerard Verkleij)
Evolutionary Phytopathology
(Pedro Crous)
Fungal Natural Products
(Jerome Collemare)
Fungal Physiology
(Ronald de Vries)
Medical Mycology
(Ferry Hagen)
Software Developments, Algorithmics and Databasing
(Vincent Robert)
Yeast and Basidiomycete Research
(Teun Boekhout) The Westerdijk Institute hosts and manages th
Mycobank
fungal database, and is responsible for the mycological journals

Studies in Mycology ''Studies in Mycology'' is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal of mycology published by Elsevier on behalf of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences' CBS Fungal Biodiversity Centre. The journal was established in 1972, and i ...

, an
Fungal Systematics and Evolution (FUSE)
In collaboration with the

National Herbarium of the Netherlands National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

the mycological journal '' Persoonia'' is produced. The institute holds the library of the

Dutch Mycological Society The Netherlands Mycological Society (Dutch: ''Nederlandse Mycologische Vereniging'' (NMV)) is the national society for the Netherlands promoting the study of fungi. It was founded in 1908 and currently has around 800 members. It publishes the journ ...

and members can consult and borrow books. CBS employees contribute to data in the ''

Index Fungorum ''Index Fungorum'' is an international project to index all formal names (scientific names) in the fungus kingdom. the project is based at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, one of three partners along with Landcare Research and the Institute of M ...

'' and the Dutch Species Register. Dutch Species Register (nl) CBS Fungal Biodiversity and NCB

Naturalis Naturalis Biodiversity Center ( nl, Nederlands Centrum voor Biodiversiteit Naturalis) is a national museum of natural history and a research center on biodiversity in Leiden, Netherlands. It was named the European Museum of the Year 2021. Al ...

(Dutch Centre for Biodiversity) are setting up joint facilities for

DNA Barcoding DNA barcoding is a method of species identification using a short section of DNA from a specific gene or genes. The premise of DNA barcoding is that by comparison with a reference library of such DNA sections (also called " sequences"), an indi ...

of organisms in

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration w ...

and

as part of the project Arise.

References

External links

Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute

Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures
{{Authority control Parasitology