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- Optical astronomy in Australia
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- Promoting innovation precincts
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- Applying to export uranium and controlled ores
- Offshore mineral exploration and mining
- Offshore oil and gas exploration and development
- Offshore petroleum exploration acreage release process
- Regulating offshore oil and gas in Australian Commonwealth waters
- Regulating the Ranger Uranium Mine
- Taxes and royalties on minerals and petroleum
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Trade
Space industry
Building industry
Business support
- Funding and incentives
Emissions reduction
Industry innovation and science
- Australian Square Kilometre Array Fellowships Programme
- Business Research and Innovation Initiative
- Business-research collaboration
- Collaborating with Asia-Pacific on science, research and innovation
- Collaborating with China on science and research
- Collaborating with India on science and research
- Cooperative research centres
- Enabling international space investment
- Industry 4.0
- Inspiring Australia: Science engagement in Australia
- International research collaboration
- Moon to Mars: opportunities for Australian businesses
- Prime Minister's Prizes for Science
- Research and Development Tax Incentive
- Supporting advanced manufacturing
- Supporting business and innovation
- Supporting space infrastructure growth
- Transitioning Australia’s automotive manufacturing industry
- Venture capital
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DNA standards for food, environment and health

The National Measurement Institute produces genetic reference standards for health, food and environmental applications.
Our standards are:
- accurate, with amount traceable to the International System of Units (SI) through the mole or the counting unit 1
- reproducible
- internationally accepted
- custom designed
- solution or pre-dispensed into wells of a Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) plate
- cost effective
Applications include method validation, calibration curves or limit of detection for:
- environmental pathogens in drinking water
- gene doping in sport
- cancer diagnostics
- animal species in feeds and foods
- genetically modified organisms in food and agriculture
Our genetic standards capability
We use our expertise to provide customised client services:
- We’re one of few measurement institutes with the capability to compare digital polymerase chain reaction (dPCR) and isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS) measurements of DNA reference materials when traceability to the SI mole is needed for ultimate accuracy.
- For medical applications, our DNA reference materials enable you to compare diagnostic measurements on different patients, across different national and international treatment centres, over many year timeframes.
- We have unique capability in:
- designing DNA assays that are fit for purpose and cost-effective
- evaluating potential biases in DNA measurements so we get the correct result
- measuring methylated DNA targets
- We have demonstrated capability through our participation in international proficiency studies to quantify DNA in concentration values or ratios that are traceable to the SI.
Measurement services
We provide the following measurement services for medically significant DNA biomarkers:
- support to translate research into new diagnostic products
- reference standards with clinically relevant quantified levels of biomarkers for use as calibrants or quality control materials
- validated high-accuracy reference methods for biomarkers using the counting technique, dPCR
- support to develop and validate DNA extraction methods from body fluids with established extraction recovery
DNA characterising techniques
We have world-class expertise in developing quantitative methods for characterising DNA using these techniques:
- dPCR
- quantitative real-time (qPCR)
- IDMS
- accurate molecular weight measurement for double stranded DNA <190 base pairs
- high pressure liquid chromatography
- capillary electrophoresis
- massive parallel sequencing
Read more
- Find out about our environmental testing and analytical services
- Find out about our food and agricultural testing and analytical services
- Find out about the chemical reference materials we produce
Contact us
- Email biotesting@measurement.gov.au
- Phone +61 2 8467 3700
Connect with us
- Join us on Facebook @NMIAustralia
- Follow us on Twitter @NMIAustralia
- Follow the National Measurement Institute on LinkedIn
Related news

- National Measurement Institute
Last updated: 22 December 2020
Content ID: 64525