Anthony Nolan and Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc., (Nasdaq:PACB) announced today that Anthony Nolan is the world’s first stem cell registry to invest in an innovative new technology for advanced tissue typing.
We led the way 40 years ago when we created the world’s first bone marrow register, and we're continuing our record for innovation by purchasing two PacBio® RS II systems, which enable Single Molecule, Real-Time (SMRT®) DNA Sequencing of full-length HLA genes.
We will offer unparalleled detail and accuracy across its entire tissue typing service.
The PacBio RS II System was selected because it is the only system available that can sequence full-length HLA genes due to its industry-leading read lengths and consensus accuracy.
Professor Steven Marsh, Anthony Nolan’s Director of Bioinformatics, said: “Anthony Nolan has, from its inception, always been a scientifically pioneering organisation.
"Investment in Pacific Biosciences SMRT technology will enable us to conduct allele-level typing, as standard.
"By providing the highest resolution typing available, we will be able to unambiguously phase HLA alleles for research in tissue transplantation and other applications, with the goal of making bone marrow and blood stem cell transplants more successful."
Professor Marsh continued: “Anthony Nolan intends to use this new technology to comprehensively HLA type new and existing donors as well as improve and extend services to our current customer base.
"Allied with this, Anthony Nolan’s strategy seeks to offer services to new customers requiring full HLA typing for first-time donors, re-typing existing donors, confirmatory typing when donor/patient matches have been found, and typing for HLA-related disease association and drug hypersensitivity. This ground-breaking technology means
"Anthony Nolan staff and users of our HLA typing services will gain extra confidence that they have the most comprehensive data available as we strive toward ultimately improving transplant outcomes for patients in the future.”
Michael Hunkapiller, President and Chief Executive Officer of Pacific Biosciences said: “We are proud to have innovative leaders like Anthony Nolan adopt our platform as we bring our installed base to more than 100 systems worldwide.
“Together with Professor Steven Marsh, the designer and curator of the worldwide IMGT/HLA Database, we are excited that Anthony Nolan will now begin enhancing this critically important resource with full-length HLA genes.
"We anticipate that the unique advantages of SMRT Sequencing will also provide significant contributions to the IPD-KIR Sequence Database.”
Find out more about our innovative services and ground-breaking research here.