nCal: An R package for non-linear calibration

Abstract

Summary: Non-linear calibration is a widely used method for quantifying biomarkers wherein concentration-response curves estimated using samples of known concentrations are used to predict the biomarker concentrations in the samples of interest. The R package nCal fills an important gap in the open source, stand-alone software for performing non-linear calibration. For curve fitting, nCal provides a new implementation of a robust, Bayesian hierarchical five-parameter logistic model. nCal supports a simple graphical user interface that can be used by laboratory scientists, and contains functionality for importing data from the multiplex bead array assay instrumentation. Availability: The R package 'nCal' is available from http://cran.r-project.org/ web/packages/nCal/ under GPL-2 or later. Contact: yfong@fhcrc.org Supplementary information: Supplementary information is available in the form of an R package vignette at the above repository and an FAQ at http://research.fhcrc.org/ youyifong/en/resources/ncal.html. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press.