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GOVERNMENT AND SOCIETY Giant step toward national accreditation In what is being described as “a milestone in the development of a national system for laboratory accreditation,” the National Cooperation for Laboratory Accreditation (NACLA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on July 13, agreeing to work together to coordinate the more than 100 laboratory accreditation programs that currently exist in the United States. According to NACLA officials, support from NIST comes at a critical time for NACLA and may be just what is needed to “get the ball rolling.” Established in 1998, NACLA is a nonprofit organization whose aim eliminate the duplicate and sometimes contradictory accreditation standards and requirements for U.S. testing and calibration
laboratories. Although NACLA appeared to be gaining momentum at its second annual meeting last April, membership is still lower than originally hoped (Anal. Chem. 2000, 72, 393 A–394 A). Organizers are optimistic that NIST’s support will encourage more accreditors to seek NACLA recognition and more government agencies to use NACLA-recognized accreditors. Under the new agreement, NIST will accept NACLA recognition of laboratory accreditors as an alternative to recognition based on NIST’s own National Voluntary Conformity Assessment System Evaluation program. NIST will also recognize NACLA accreditors who evaluate laboratories on the basis of requirements of international mutual recognition agreements (MRAs), in which NIST is the desig-
nated authority. NIST says it will monitor the development of NACLA to make sure accreditors are evaluated according to the procedures and criteria agreed upon in the MOU. In addition, NIST will ensure that NACLA-recognized accreditors evaluate federal laboratories according to the unique accreditation requirements of government agencies. To fulfill its part of the agreement, NACLA will work to increase the number of laboratory accreditors seeking NACLA recognition and will encourage private and public entities to use NACLA-recognized accreditors. While NIST will focus its efforts primarily on the federal agencies, NACLA will work with the private sector to reduce the number of duplicative audits. Britt Erickson
BUSINESS Gene warehouses being stocked Now that the entire sequence of the
a “master” cloning vector known as the
where, including Celera Genomics.
human genome is available, research-
Gateway system. This vector, made by
Working in collaboration with Life Tech-
ers will need copies of the estimated
Life Technologies, Inc., is designed to
nologies, Celera will amass a repository
50,000–100,000 genes. That’s the thinking
allow easy transfer of genes into vari-
of cloned genes and variants in the
behind “The Wall”, a standard reference
ous cell types, including mammalian,
Gateway vectors. Some clones will be
database of human and other eukaryotic
bacterial, and yeast. Ultimately, HIP re-
freely available to all researchers; the
genes that is being created by the Har-
searchers expect the repository to con-
remainder will be available only to Cel-
vard Institute of Proteomics (HIP).
tain hundreds of thousands of tubes,
era’s subscribers. Celera will sequen-
each one bar-coded and linked to a
ce the libraries, and the clones will be
Web-accessible database.
available through links in Celera’s se-
Each gene in this repository will be stored as a full-length cDNA clone— which omits any noncoding regions—in
582 A
Similar ventures are under way else-
A N A LY T I C A L C H E M I S T R Y / S E P T E M B E R 1 , 2 0 0 0
quence database.
