CELMS is a collection of non-medical environmental and laboratory microbial strains situated at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Tartu. The collection was founded in 1995. Since year 2008 the collection is registered at WFCC-MIRCEN World Data Centre for Microorganisms (registry number 926).

CELMS is a member of ECCO (European Culture Collections’ Organisation). The collection is financed by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research. Majority of strains have been isolated from polluted areas with strong oil shale mining and chemical industry impact. Since year 2008 bacterial isolates from different regions of the Baltic Sea have been added to the collection. Main tasks of the collection are extension of collection with new strains and type cultures, characterization of strains and distribution of microorganisms for purpose of research and education. Our main research activities are related to use molecular methods for characterization of microbial strains and diversity of functional genes.