NIST Standard Reference Materials

The Standard Reference Materials Program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provides science, industry, and government with a central source of well-characterized materials certified for chemical composition or for some chemical or physical property.

NIST has a long-term commitment to providing SRMs for the clinical laboratory community and the in vitro diagnostics industry that supplies this community. Use of these materials provides a means for assuring the accuracy of methods used for determining health status and diagnosing diseases. These SRMs provide higher-order traceability for routine methods, calibrators, and controls. NIST provides SRMs in the areas of human serum and milk, pure crystalline standards, animal blood products, calibration solutions for determination of proteins and amino acids, biomaterials, human urine and other miscellaneous health-related materials.