Development of metrological support for nucleic acid measurements

Abstract

Measurements of nucleic acid have become an essential part of analytical applications in many fields including life science, medicine, veterinary medicine and biotechnology. Peculiarities of these measurements are largely determined by the uniqueness of quantity and analyte definitions. Quantitative PCR, applied for routine nucleic acids measurements, is a relative method demanding external calibrators with quantity values traceable to corresponding reference materials. Direct nucleic acid measurements became possible after introduction of the digital PCR (dPCR) method. Ensuring accurate, comparable and traceable to SI nucleic acids measurements is the focus of Nucleic Acid Analysis Working Group of the Consultative Committee for Amount of Substance: Metrology in Chemistry and Biology. A number of pilot and key comparisons carried out by Working Group have shown that application of dPCR allows participating National Metrological Institutes to obtain comparable results of measurements of the sequence copy number concentrations and copy number ratios.