Preparation of robust Synthetic Control samples
We developed a method for generating Synthetic Control (SC) samples, which duplicate the nucleic acid signature of complex clinical specimens and produce the desired test outcome. SCs can be easily and cost-effectively produced in large quantities (>100,000 SCs per amplification cycle), enabling high throughput diagnostic testing. Here, we report the generation of Synthetic Positive Control (SPC) samples. SPCs were validated and implemented in a clinical laboratory. The SPCs produced robust positive signals (average OC risk score of 0.997) and high levels of reproducibility (%CV of 0.2%) in a high throughput automated CLIA laboratory. SCs are a novel and useful method for the generation of high quality controls for MT-based diagnostic tests, and their adoption could herald the widespread use of MT tests in molecular diagnostics.