Define samples as no-template controls

No-template control (NTC) samples can be defined in Torrent Suite™ Software or Ion Reporter™ Software. No-template controls are samples that intentionally leave out any nucleic acid, and are used to monitor contamination or primer-dimer formations that could produce false‑positive results.

If samples are defined as NTCs in Torrent Suite™ Software, the sample attributes transfer to Ion Reporter™ Software automatically.

If you define NTCs with a sample type that is not correct, Oncomine™ DNA and Fusions analyses and Oncomine™ DNA analyses might not complete successfully in Ion Reporter™ Software due to insufficient reads.

  1. In the Samples tab, in the Overview screen, click the sample name that you want to designate as an NTC.
  2. Click Define Samples > Manual
  3. In the Define Samples screen, enter a sample name and select one or more samples to include in the sample, then click Add to Sample.
  4. Click Attributes in the workflow bar. If the Sample Type attribute is not shown, click Add Attribute > Sample Type to add the attribute to the table.
  5. In the Sample Type column, select DNA NTC or RNA NTC.
  6. If you define the sample as DNA NTC, you must also add the Percentage Cellularity attribute, then set the percentage cellularity to 100 percent.

    The Percent Cellularity attribute is not required for RNA samples.

    1. Click Add Attribute to add the Percentage Cellularity attribute.
    2. Enter 100 in the Percentage Cellularity column.
  7. When the sample information is complete, click Next.
  8. In the Review step, check the sample names and number of samples. If the sample information is correct, click Save.

The sample or samples are now ready for analysis. For more information, see Launch an analysis.

Related Topics
Parent topic: Sample definition