British Bone Marrow Registry NHS Cord Blood Bank HLA typing by Next Generation Sequencing NHS Blood and Transplant NHS Blood and Transplant is a national organisation within the NHS dedicated to saving and improving lives through the broad range of services we provide to the wider healthcare community, all delivered through a “not for profit” model. British Bone Marrow Registry The British Bone Marrow Registry (BBMR) holds details of stem cell donors and cord blood donations from England, Scotland, North Wales and Northern Ireland. It is responsible for recruiting, testing and registering blood donors who volunteer to become stem cell donors. It is also part of an international network, performing searches around the world, to find suitable stem cell donors. The service is provided for patients requiring a stem cell transplant and for whom no HLA compatible family member is identified. Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics Our Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (H&I) laboratories provide a range of diagnostic and reference services to meet the needs of patients and those who treat them. These services include HLA typing of adult donors for the BBMR, and cord blood units for the NHS Cord Blood Bank. Introduction of Next Generation Sequencing After significant investment, development and validation, NHS Blood and Transplant have introduced full-length allelic level HLA typing of adult bone marrow donors and cord blood units by Next Generation Sequencing (NGS). NGS platforms combine technological advances with innovative chemistry to resolve unequivocally any ambiguity at the allele level. HLA matching at allelic resolution is proven clinically significant in HSCT, lowering the risk of graft-versus-host disease and mortality by identifying the best matched donor for the patient. In addition, sequencing donors at the allelic level using NGS removes the need for extended typing which can still be problematic and delays the provision of donor and therefore transplant by weeks. The listing of allelic-level typed donors on the BBMR realises a number of benefits: • Reduced search and selection times, leading to a shorter time to transplant • Reduction in additional testing of multiple donors, and a corresponding reduction in costs to Transplant Units • Improved outcome of the procedure in patients transplanted with matched unrelated donors. Next Generation Sequencing NGS has the capacity to produce large amounts of data relatively quickly and cheaply, making it an ideal solution for high resolution HLA typing of large donor registries. By combining the ability to generate a high proportion of an individual’s genetic sequence in one experiment, with novel DNA identification or ‘bar-coding’ technology, NGS can be used to target a specific region of the genome from many individual samples in one pool. As well as the ability to process high sample numbers, clonal sequencing (the basis of NGS technology) has the added advantage over conventional methods of resolving ambiguities caused by the high degree of polymorphism. Other services available from NHS Blood and Transplant H&I laboratories include CCR5 Delta32 mutation testing. Next Generation Sequencing from NHS Blood and Transplant NHSBT will be offering HLA typing by NGS as a service later in 2015. Please contact us for further information. To find out more about HLA typing by Next Generation Sequencing, and other H&I services from NHS Blood and Transplant, please email [email protected]. NHS Blood and Transplant NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) saves and improves lives by providing a safe, reliable and efficient supply of blood and associated services to the NHS in England and North Wales. We are the organ donor organisation for the UK and are responsible for matching and allocating donated organs. We rely on thousands of members of the public who voluntarily donate their blood, organs, tissues and stem cells. For more information Visit nhsbt.nhs.uk Email [email protected] Call 0300 123 23 23
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