Theme:
The External RNA Control Consortium (ERCC) is composed of representatives from the public, private, and academic sectors, working together in a consensus fashion to develop tools for experiment control and performance evaluation for gene expression analysis. These tools will include spike-in controls, protocols, and informatics tools, all intended to be useful across one- and two-color microarrays and quantitative RT-PCR (QRT-PCR).

This workshop, led by the ERCC Bioinformatics Working Group, is intended to outline a clear path of action for the creation and deployment of the informatics and analysis tools needed to support the development and application of the RNA spike-in controls.

ERCC “Rules of Engagement”:
The ERCC is a volunteer organization that draws from the commercial, academic and government scientific communities. In order to fairly balance the needs of these different participants, the ERCC will employ a "Value given for value received" philosophy. Needs will be prioritized on the basis of 1) utility to the entire mRNA quantitation community 2) specific utility to members actively contributing data and other work products. Because it is a volunteer organization, the ERCC cannot ask actively participating members to solve the particular problems of non-participating members.

ERCC Bioinformatics Working Group “Terms of Reference”:
The ERCC Bioinformatics Working Group is charged to develop methods and tools that can be used to evaluate the performance of a gene expression assay, based on the measurement of external RNA controls. The methods and tools are intended to be developed and delivered in a transparent fashion, with any software developed in an open-source manner. All work will be published in the open literature, and efforts will be made to coordinate both inside the ERCC and with external organizations with common interests.

Agenda

Breakout sessions:
These sessions will be facilitated by ERCC members and workshop speakers, and are intended to provide guidance, broad functional specification, and implementation plans for the different informatics and analysis tools that will be needed throughout the phases of the ERCC activities. These phases include the development of the RNA standards, the development of protocols for their use, and the application of the RNA standards to experiment control and performance evaluation.

• Validation: This group will identify the tools needed to use the external RNA spike-ins to validate a gene expression experiment. Such tools will perhaps permit a “Green, Yellow, Red Light” status to be determined for an experiment.

• ERCC Internal Informatics Needs: Tools are needed for use while developing the spike-in control set. These tools will be required to identify adequate performance of individual RNA sequences, validate pools, quantitate performance metrics, assess stability, and measure performance in complex backgrounds.

• Spike-in Controls to support quantitative Gene Expression: The community has expressed interested in the possibility of using the external spike-in controls to aid in quantitating expression. Potential applications range from tools for normalizing to relative calibration.

• Implementation and Data Management: A number of implementation issues need to be addressed. These include the development environment for implementation of tools; the manner in which collaborative projects are managed; and the formats and repositories in which data are stored, exchanged, and posted to the internet. This group will identify the issues that need to be addressed, recommend possible approaches, and identify decisions that need to be made.

Notes:
Registration web page to include selection of first 2 choices of breakout group to attend.