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A two‐stage experimental design for dilution assays
Author(s) -
Ferguson Jake M.,
Miura Tanya A.,
Miller Craig R.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
biometrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.298
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1541-0420
pISSN - 0006-341X
DOI - 10.1111/biom.13032
Subject(s) - estimator , dilution , computer science , design of experiments , stage (stratigraphy) , work (physics) , statistics , reliability engineering , mathematics , engineering , paleontology , physics , biology , thermodynamics , mechanical engineering
Dilution assays to determine solute concentration have found wide use in biomedical research. Many dilution assays return imprecise concentration estimates because they are only done to orders of magnitude. Previous statistical work has focused on how to design efficient experiments that can return more precise estimates, however this work has not considered the practical difficulties of implementing these designs in the laboratory. We developed a two‐stage experiment with a first stage that obtains an order of magnitude estimate and a second stage that concentrates effort on the most informative dilution to increase estimator precision. We show using simulations and an empirical example that the best two‐stage experimental designs yield estimates that are remarkably more accurate than standard methods with equivalent effort. This work demonstrates how to utilize previous advances in experimental design in a manner consistent with current laboratory practice. We expect that multi‐stage designs will prove to be useful for obtaining precise estimates with minimal experimental effort.

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