What is the fingerprint identifying?
Any multi-tissue study processes each tissue as a unit — one extraction plate, one library batch, one flowcell — so within-study accuracy alone leaves open how much of a fingerprint is biology. We measured how much processing could contribute in MoTrPAC, using the consortium's own reference-standard RNA pools run on every plate, and settled the question with an independent laboratory.
Each tissue was processed as a unit, in every layer
Library QC numbers alone classify the tissue
Measuring batch directly on the consortium's bridging standards
The consortium ran reference-standard RNA pools on every extraction plate; their between-plate variance, set against the variance that separates tissues, measures batch directly on the genes the pools express.