[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 72 (Friday, April 15, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Page 19931]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-7592]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology


Announcement of a Meeting to Explore Feasibility of Establishing 
a NIST/Industry Consortium on Gene Expression Metrology

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of public meeting.

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SUMMARY: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 
invites interested parties to attend a pre-consortium meeting on May 
16, 2005 to be held on the NIST campus in Boulder, Colorado. The goal 
of the one-day meeting is to evaluate industry interest in creating a 
NIST/industry consortium focused on gene expression metrology. The 
goals of such a consortium would include the development of measurement 
methods of known quality for microarray gene expression results. The 
consortium would be supervised and administered by NIST. Consortium 
research and development would be conducted by NIST staff members along 
with at least one technical representative from each participating 
member company. Membership in the Consortium is open to manufacturers 
of complete microarray gene expression systems (i.e. systems which 
include all components required to measure a genome-wide expression 
profile form isolated RNA). Consortium Members will be required to 
provide the NIST staff members with a complete system representative of 
their technology platform to support measurement and standards 
development. The initial term of the consortium is intended to be three 
years.

DATES: The meeting will take place on May 17, 2005, at 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 
Interested parties should contact NIST to confirm their interest at the 
address, telephone number or FAX number shown below.

ADDRESSES: The meeting will take place at the National Institute of 
Standards and Technology (NIST), 325 Broadway Room 4550, Boulder, 
Colorado.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Marc Salit, Advanced Chemical Science 
Laboratory, Stop 8310, National Institute of Standards and Technology 
(NIST), Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8310. Telephone: (301) 975-3646; FAX: 
301 975-5449; e-mail: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Any program undertaken will be within the 
scope and confines of The Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986 (Pub. 
L. 99-502, 15 U.S.C. 3710a), which provides federal laboratories 
including NIST, with the authority to enter into cooperative research 
agreements with qualified parties. Under this law, NIST may contribute 
personnel, equipment, and facilities but no funds to the cooperative 
research program. This is not a grant program.

    Dated: April 8, 2005.
Hratch G. Semerjian,
Acting Director.
[FR Doc. 05-7592 Filed 4-14-05; 8:45 am]
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