BackgroundGene expression profiling is an important approach for detecting diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, and predicting drug safety. The development of a wide range of technologies and platforms for measuring mRNA expression makes the evaluation and standardization of transcriptomic data problematic due to differences in protocols, data processing and analysis methods. Thus, universal RNA standards, such as those developed by the External RNA Controls Consortium (ERCC), are proposed to aid validation of research findings from diverse platforms such as microarrays and RT-qPCR, and play a role in quality control (QC) processes as transcriptomic profiling becomes more commonplace in the clinical setting.
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