Technology

How QAID works

One DNA microarray run. Many quality-assurance questions answered at once.

QAID is a system you run in your own laboratory. You prepare the sample, run it on a QAID microarray slide, scan the slide on a compatible microarray scanner, and analyze the data in the QAID App. QAID designs the microarrays, builds the software and the reference panels behind it, and trains your team to use them.

Many probes, one slide

A DNA microarray is a slide carrying thousands of short DNA probes, each designed to bind DNA from one target. Because every probe is read in the same run, a single test can ask many questions at once instead of one question per tube.

Scanned in your own lab

After the sample has been prepared and run on the slide, your team scans it on a compatible microarray scanner. The scanner records the signal at every probe position and exports a data file. The sample and the data stay with you.

Read by the QAID App

The QAID App applies the analysis workflow for the product the slide was run on: it checks the assay controls, measures each probe against the background on that slide, and reports which targets were identified, with confidence metrics behind every call.

Curated reference panels

Each product has its own curated reference panel: the targets it screens for and the probes that represent them. The panel is what turns a grid of signal values into a species name. How the reference library works.

The process, end to end

From a sample on your bench to a decision your QA team can document.

  1. Sample

    Your raw material or finished product

  2. QAID Microarray

    A purpose-designed DNA microarray for your QA challenge

  3. Microarray scanner

    The slide is scanned in your own lab

  4. QAID App

    Analysis and interpretation, with assay controls

  5. QA decision

    Release, hold or investigate — your call, with the evidence

QAID TrainingImplementationConsultingScientific Support

What happens in a run

  1. Extract the DNA. DNA is recovered from the sample using the extraction approach appropriate to that material. How much DNA can be recovered depends on the matrix and on how it was processed, which is why suitability is confirmed for each material type.
  2. Prepare and label. The extracted DNA is prepared and labelled so that it can be detected once it binds to the slide.
  3. Run the microarray. The prepared sample is applied to a QAID microarray slide, where target DNA binds to the probes designed for it. Assay controls are carried on the same slide as the sample.
  4. Scan. The slide is scanned on a compatible microarray scanner, which measures the signal at every probe position and writes it to a data file.
  5. Analyze in the QAID App. You upload the file, choose the QAID product it was run on, and the App checks the controls before reporting any result. Several probes stand behind each target, so a call does not rest on one spot on the slide.
  6. Decide. The App shows what was identified, what was screened for and not detected, the confidence metrics, the control outcome and the supporting signal data. Your QA team makes the call.

Why a microarray rather than one test at a time

Conventional single-target methods answer one question per reaction. Screening a botanical blend or a seafood mixture against a long list of possible species therefore means running a long list of tests, and you only find what you thought to look for.

A microarray inverts that. The panel is decided when the product is designed, so every run screens for every target on it. You see the species you expected, the ones you did not, and the ones that were screened for and not detected — which is often the more useful half of the answer.

More on how that changes the questions you can ask →

Where QAID stops and your QA program starts

QAID supplies the system. The microarray products, the QAID App, the reference panels and the training to implement them.

You run it, and you decide. The run happens in your laboratory, the results stay private to your organization, and release, hold, retest or confirmatory testing remains your call. How QAID products are validated and what you need to get started.

See how this would work in your laboratory

Tell us about your products and QA goals, and we’ll walk through the workflow, the equipment you already have, and what implementation would involve.

Getting Started Talk to a QAID Scientist