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Reliable biological and multi-omics research through biometrology

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Abstract

Metrology is the science of measurement and its applications, whereas biometrology is the science of biological measurement and its applications. Biometrology aims to achieve accuracy and consistency of biological measurements by focusing on the development of metrological traceability, biological reference measurement procedures, and reference materials. Irreproducibility of biological and multi-omics research results from different laboratories, platforms, and analysis methods is hampering the translation of research into clinical uses and can often be attributed to the lack of biologists’ attention to the general principles of metrology. In this paper, the progresses of biometrology including metrology on nucleic acid, protein, and cell measurements and its impacts on the improvement of reliability and comparability in biological research are reviewed. Challenges in obtaining more reliable biological and multi-omics measurements due to the lack of primary reference measurement procedures and new standards for biological reference materials faced by biometrology are discussed. In the future, in addition to establishing reliable reference measurement procedures, developing reference materials from single or multiple parameters to multi-omics scale should be emphasized. Thinking in way of biometrology is warranted for facilitating the translation of high-throughput omics research into clinical practices.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2023YFF0613300) and the basic research funding in key field sponsored by the National Institute of Metrology, People’s Republic of China (AKYZD2202).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Lianhua Dong, Yu Zhang, Boqiang Fu, Claudia Swart, and Huayan Jiang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Advanced Measurement of Science, National Institute of Metrology, Beijing, 100029, China

    Lianhua Dong, Yu Zhang, Boqiang Fu, Yahui Liu, Chunyan Niu, Yongzhuo Zhang, Zhiwei Sui, Lianchao Yu, Xinhua Dai & Xiang Fang

  2. Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, 38116, Braunschweig, Germany

    Claudia Swart

  3. BGI, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518083, China

    Huayan Jiang, Qianyi Li, Yangyang Liu, Qing Xie & Ye Yin

  4. National Measurement Laboratory at LGC (NML), Teddington, Middlesex, UK

    Jim Huggett

  5. Bureau International Des Poids Et Mesures (BIPM), Pavillon de Breteuil, 92312, Sèvres Cedex, France

    Robert Wielgosz

  6. Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

    Sang-Ryoul Park

  7. BGI Genomics, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518083, China

    Hongfu Zhang

  8. MGI, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518083, China

    Yueyuxiao Yang

  9. State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, School of Life Sciences and Human Phenome Institute, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200438, China

    Leming Shi

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  1. Lianhua Dong
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Contributions

Lianhua Dong: conceptualization; project administration; formal analysis; visualization; resources; writing, original draft preparation; writing, review and editing; and funding acquisition. Yu Zhang: investigation, data curation, methodology, software, visualization, and writing, original draft preparation. Boqiang Fu: investigation, data curation, formal analysis, methodology, and writing, original draft preparation. Claudia Swart: investigation, data curation, formal analysis, methodology, and review and editing. Huayan Jiang: data curation and formal analysis. Yahui Liu: data curation; formal analysis; writing, original draft preparation; and writing, review and editing. Jim Huggett: investigation, formal analysis, methodology, and review and editing. Robert Wielgosz: data curation and formal analysis. Chunyan Niu: resources, formal analysis, and review and editing. Qianyi Li: formal analysis and review and editing. Yongzhuo Zhang: formal analysis and methodology. Sang-Ryoul Park: formal analysis and review and editing. Zhiwei Sui: formal analysis and review and editing. Lianchao Yu: review and editing. Yangyang Liu: review and editing. Qing Xie: review and editing. Hongfu Zhang: review and editing. Yueyuxiao Yang: review and editing. Xinhua Dai: formal analysis and visualization. Leming Shi: formal analysis, visualization, and review and editing. Ye Yin: formal analysis, visualization, and review and editing. Xiang Fang: conceptualization, formal analysis, and visualization.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Lianhua Dong, Xinhua Dai, Ye Yin or Xiang Fang.

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Dong, L., Zhang, Y., Fu, B. et al. Reliable biological and multi-omics research through biometrology. Anal Bioanal Chem (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-024-05239-3

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