For the past 25 years NIST has developed a number of biological fluid and tissue Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) primarily for clinically important analytes (e.g., cholesterol, glucose, creatinine, and trace elements). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the New York (NY) State Department of Health along with other state agencies are conducting studies such as the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) that require the analysis of a large number of samples obtained from study subjects for clinically important analytes and for contaminants.
The development of SRMs to support measurements for contaminants in biological fluids and tissues will expand quality assurance capabilities to important species critical to human health. We will provide SRMs that are representative of the analytical challenges that may be encountered by analysts in all segments of the biomonitoring community. We will employ results from multiple analytical methods at NIST and data provided by collaborating laboratories to characterize the chemical composition of natural-matrix SRMs. We will also develop robust methods of analysis for use by the biomonitoring community.
NIST and CDC are collaborating on the development of a wide variety of SRMs that will be useful to the biomonitoring community. These include organic contaminants in human serum, human milk, and human urine, lead in caprine blood (with input from the NY State Department of Health), elements in bovine liver and animal serum, arsenic species in human urine, and toxic elements in human urine. Methods have been developed at NIST and at CDC for these measurements, and the results from the independent methods are being combined to provide certified concentration values for contaminants in the different materials.
Clicking on the SRM name and number below will take you to a page from which you can access the Certificate of Analysis for available SRMs.