Background
The External RNA Controls Consortium (ERCC) is composed of representatives from the public, private, and academic sectors, working together to produce external RNA spike-in controls that will be useful for sample control on a variety of microarray platforms and by RT-PCR. These platform-independent control materials are needed for performance evaluation of reproducibility, sensitivity, and robustness in gene expression analysis.

Development of these controls is consistent with recommendations made at the March 2003 NIST-Stanford meeting, Metrology and Standards Needs for Gene Expression Technologies: Universal RNA Standards. The ERCC will also produce recommended protocols for the use of the controls. The ERCC intends for these materials to have ready access and broad acceptance within the research and clinical communities. The controls shall consist of 100 well characterized clones comprised of random unique sequence as determined by sequence comparison to mouse, rat, human, drosophila, E. coli, mosquito sequence databases, as well as well characterized Bacillus subtillus and Arabadopsis thaliana clones.

Workshop Objectives
The External RNA Controls Consortium (ERCC) has collaboratively developed a specification for external RNA spike-in controls that can be used to characterize the performance of a gene-expression measurement. This specification is presented for review and comment, and NIST is hosting a workshop intended to provide a forum for interactive discussion of the specification and planning for its continued development and implementation.