title: Finger stick blood collection for gene expression profiling and storage of tempus blood RNA tubes.
abstract: With this report we aim to make available a standard operating procedure (SOP) developed for RNA stabilization of small blood volumes collected via a finger stick. The anticipation that this procedure may be improved through peer-review and/or readers public comments is another element motivating the publication of this SOP. Procuring blood samples from human subjects can, among other uses, enable assessment of the immune status of an individual subject via the profiling of RNA abundance using technologies such as real time PCR, NanoString, microarrays or RNA-sequencing. It is often desirable to minimize blood volumes and employ methods that are the least invasive and can be practically implemented outside of clinical settings. Finger stick blood samples are increasingly used for measurement of levels of pharmacological drugs and biological analytes. It is a simple and convenient procedure amenable for instance to field use or self-collection at home using a blood sample collection kit. Such methodologies should also enable the procurement of blood samples at high frequency for health or disease monitoring applications.
authors.affiliation: Systems Biology Department, Sidra Medical and Research Center, Doha, Qatar.
authors.forename: Darawan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rinchai
authors.affiliation: The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, Farmington, USA.
authors.forename: Esperanza
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Anguiano
authors.affiliation: Baylor Scott and White Health, Dallas, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Phuong
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.affiliation: Systems Biology Department, Sidra Medical and Research Center, Doha, Qatar.
authors.forename: Damien
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chaussabel
keywords: Blood collection; Fingerstick; Gene expression; RNA; Tempus; Transcriptome