The microarray research community and industry got a big boost last week with the release by the linkurl:Microarray Quality Control (MAQC) Project;http://www.fda.gov/nctr/science/centers/toxicoinformatics/maqc/ Consortium, of a massive collection of data attesting to the reproducibility and reliability of microarray-based gene-expression profiling. Attempting to lay to rest, once and for all, the question of linkurl:microarray data reliability and reproducibility;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/23307 the Consortium, representing 137 scientists from 51 academic, government, and industry institutions, compared data from two standard RNA samples on seven array platforms and three non-array platforms. Team members cross-checked their numbers between experiments, across sites, and across platforms, accounting for nearly every variable imaginable, from external RNA controls, to one-color versus two-colors, to statistical methods. The results were published in the September issue of __Nature Biotechnology__, which devoted linkurl:67 pages;http://www.nature.com/nbt/focus/maqc/index.html to the material, including an editorial, a foreword, three commentaries, four analyses, and two research articles. The main conclusion: consistency across sites and...
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