title: The microbiome quality control project: baseline study design and future directions.
abstract: Microbiome research has grown exponentially over the past several years, but studies have been difficult to reproduce across investigations. Relevant variation in measurements between laboratories, from a variety of sources, has not been systematically assessed. This is coupled with a growing concern in the scientific community about the lack of reproducibility in biomedical research. The Microbiome Quality Control project (MBQC) was initiated to identify sources of variation in microbiome studies, to quantify their magnitudes, and to assess the design and utility of different positive and negative control strategies. Here we report on the first MBQC baseline study project and workshop.
authors.affiliation: Nutritional Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, 9609 Medical Center Drive, Bethesda, Maryland, 20892, USA. sinhar@nih.gov.
authors.forename: Rashmi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sinha
authors.affiliation: Nutritional Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, 9609 Medical Center Drive, Bethesda, Maryland, 20892, USA.
authors.forename: Christian C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Abnet
authors.affiliation: Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, 21201, USA.
authors.forename: Owen
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: White
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pediatrics and Computer Science & Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA.
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Knight
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Curtis
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Huttenhower
mesh_terms: D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D007202:Indicators and Reagents; D008829:Microbiology / Q000592:standards; D064307:Microbiota; D011786:Quality Control; D012015:Reference Standards; D012107:Research Design
chemical_list: D007202:Indicators and Reagents