Comparative studies of two generations of NanoString nCounter System

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 14; no. 11; p. e0225505
• Main Authors: Yu, Lianbo, Bhayana, Sagar, Jacob, Naduparambil K, Fadda, Paolo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 21.11.2019; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Background noise; Biological properties; Biological samples; Biology and life sciences; Cancer; Cells, Cultured; Comparative literature; Comparative studies; Criminal investigation; Deoxyribonucleic acid; Design; DNA; Engineering and Technology; Gene expression; Gene Expression Profiling - instrumentation; Genomics; Humans; Laboratories; Mathematical models; MicroRNA; MicroRNAs; MicroRNAs - genetics; Models, Statistical; Nanostructures; Physical Sciences; Polymerase chain reaction; Research and Analysis Methods; Sensitivity and Specificity; Social science research; Statistical analysis; Statistical methods; Statistical models; Studies; Technology; Translational research; Variance analysis; United States > US; Ohio
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225505

The NanoString nCounter System has been widely used in basic science and translational science research for the past decade. The System consists of two instruments: the PrepStation and the Digital Analyzer, and both have been continuously improved with evolving technologies. A great amount of research data have been generated at multiple research laboratories with the employment of different generations of the System. With the need of integrating multiple datasets, researchers are interested to know whether signals are comparable between different generations of the System. Toward this end, we designed a profiling study to compare performance of two generations of the NanoString nCounter System using a common set of biological samples. Using graphical tools and statistical models, we found that two different generations of NanoString nCounter System produced equivalent signals and signal deviations are in the range of random background noises for the medium-high expression levels.