Microarrays Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Microarrays, including details on experiments, designs, statistics, analysis, software.

Evaluation of external RNA controls for the assessment of microarray performance.

Tong W, Lucas AB, Shippy R, Fan X, Fang H, Hong H, Orr MS, Chu TM, Guo X, Collins PJ, Sun YA, Wang SJ, Bao W, Wolfinger RD, Shchegrova S, Guo L, Warrington JA, Shi L

National Center for Toxicological Research, US Food and Drug Administration, 3900 NCTR Rd., Jefferson, Arkansas 72079, USA.

External RNA controls (ERCs), although important for microarray assay performance assessment, have yet to be fully implemented in the research community. As part of the MicroArray Quality Control (MAQC) study, two types of ERCs were implemented and evaluated; one was added to the total RNA in the samples before amplification and labeling; the other was added to the copyRNAs (cRNAs) before hybridization. ERC concentration-response curves were used across multiple commercial microarray platforms to identify problematic assays and potential sources of variation in the analytical process. In addition, the behavior of different ERC types was investigated, resulting in several important observations, such as the sample-dependent attributes of performance and the potential of using these control RNAs in a combinatorial fashion. This multiplatform investigation of the behavior and utility of ERCs provides a basis for articulating specific recommendations for their future use in evaluating assay performance across multiple platforms.

Published 11 September 2006 in Nat Biotechnol, 24(9): 1132-9.
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