NCTR Publications > NCTR Research Highlights

MicroArray Quality Control (MAQC) Project Meeting

The 12th MAQC (SEQC) Project Meeting was held on December 6-7, 2010, on the campuses of the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, respectively, and was attended by over 100 participants, including representatives from Germany, France, Russia, and China. The first day focused on discussion of MAQC-III (also known as Sequencing Quality Control, SEQC), including analysis of the results from pilot study data sets, new SEQC study designs, and standards on next generation sequencing data format and analysis. Discussions during the second day dealt with the MAQC-II findings on developing and validating genomic classifiers and the follow-up actions to be taken to ensure the reproducibility of genomic research. The MAQC project is a FDA-led community-wide effort to develop standards for genomic research and bioinformatics to support translational and personalized medicine.

Genomics and Blood-Borne Biomarkers

The identification of new biomarkers of disease and drug toxicity is a growing field of research with many potential biomarkers having been identified; however, many of these studies fail to adequately validate and assess the specificity of the biomarker panel. For clinical utility, emphasis must be on noninvasive biomarkers and recent publications suggest genomic evaluation (mRNA and miRNA) of blood may have great promise. For example, potential blood-borne genomic biomarkers have been identified for various neurological diseases, inflammatory diseases, and adverse drug events. As this science matures, proper qualification and validation of these biomarkers must be addressed (as in the MAQC-II consortia) in order for genomics to fulfill its potential in personalized medicine and improving public health. An invited review on this topic will be published in an upcoming issue of Pharmacogenomics (2011).
NCTR Publications > NCTR Research Highlights