Projects

Minor Histocompatibility Antigen

The minor Histocompatibility antigen component comprises two activities:

I. minor Histocompatibility nomenclature

II. Wet Workshop

Minor Histocompatibility Antigen Nomenclature.

This activity will be initiated beginning 2005. Hereto, we will invite several in this field experienced scientists to participate. We will also send a questionnaire around to all minor Histocompatibility antigen active laboratories. The active and main discussion on the minor nomenclature will take place during the Melbourne meeting.

Wet Workshop.

This activity is currently under development and will be ready in late autumn this year. What does it comprise? We are currently working on the generation of a ‘ready to go’ minor H genomic typing tray, wherein all currently available minor H antigens can de analysed simultaneously. We will also include some novel unpublished minor H antigens that have been forwarded to us confidentially. We intend to announce the availability of this plate to everybody. We see primarily two interesting groups i.e.: the HLA (and minor H antigen) typing laboratories and the minor H antigen research laboratories.

The labs/groups who request the minor H genomic tray will be asked to use our prefab typing plate to:

perform minor H antigen typing on the local healthy population in order to get information on minor H antigen population genetics
perform retrospective minor H antigen typing on a significant number of the local bone marrow transplant donor/recipient in order to get information on the possible impact of the currently known minor H antigens on the outcome of BMT
enter the minor H antigen typing data in a database. The participating labs/groups get access to this database to register their typing results. We are currently developing a database in such a way that statistical analyses can be executed. We will present these data on behalf of all participating labs/groups during the Melbourne meeting.

A letter of invitation to all, to our knowledge, HLA (and minor H antigen) typing labs and minor H antigen research labs will be sent out this autumn. Herein we will explain the logistics of the wet workshop in detail together with the milestones and deliverables to be reached in time for the Melbourne meeting. We plan to have the ‘ready to go’ minor H antigen genomic typing tray available at the latest by the end of this year.

April, 2005, Update

Wet Workshop.

Last autumn, a letter of invitation to participate in the wet minor histocompatibility antigen workshop was sent to the IHIW community. Twenty-seven labs responded to our invitation. This overwhelming response has made logistics more complicated than anticipated on. We have therefore contacted Dynal Biotech to facilitate the production and distribution of the typing plates. Dynal Biotech has now produced the plates. The plates will be distributed free of charge to the labs that subscribed before the deadline. All participants will receive the 200 plates by the end of April. Labs that have not subscribed but are interested in participating are welcomed to join the minor H component. Unfortunately, minor typing trays cannot be provided for free to these labs. The good news is that the kit will become commercially available soon via Dynal Biotech. Those labs participating in the minor histocompatibility workshop will be able to buy the trays at a 35% discount to the estimated list price of 330 euros per kit. Each kit will contain 20 typings. Interested labs can send a request to minor-workshop@lumc.nl before June 1 st 2005, mentioning the number of plates and their shipping address.

We have developed a minor histocompatibility workshop webpage. The public part is ready and has been published at www.lumc.nl/ihiw14 . Data submission and analysis will be available for all participants at a later stage via a password-protected section.

Nomenclature

The coming weeks, a letter of invitation to participate in the minor histocompatibility antigen nomenclature activity will be sent out to the relevant experienced scientists

Component leader: Els Goulmy

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