British Bone Marrow Registry NHS Cord Blood Bank

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 HINATNL@nhsbt.nhs.uk.
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 enquiries@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Call
0300 123 23 23