The Tissue Typing Laboratory

Clinical tech specialist, Jonathan Hoffman, treats PBMC samples.The Tissue Typing Laboratory at the University of Rochester is a full-service histocompatibility lab. We serve active renal, pancreas and cardiac transplant programs, adult and pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplant programs and our organ procurement organization. We handle living and deceased donor solid organ transplant cases, deceased donor typing for organ allocation, related and unrelated donor hematopoietic stem cell transplant cases, and HLA testing for a variety of other purposes including disease association, drug sensitivity, and vaccine and clinical trial eligibility screening.

The lab performs HLA genotyping, antibody testing and crossmatching at multiple levels of resolution that can be tailored to meet the needs of clients. Technologies in use include short- and long-read next-generation sequencing for genotyping, Luminex® bead panels for antibody screening and identification as well as genotyping by sequence-specific oligonucleotide probes (SSOP), and flow cytometric crossmatch.

The laboratory is accredited by American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI), the College of American Pathologists and New York State. It is the only such laboratory in the Rochester area. Our technologists are on call 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

A sequence based typing (SBT) electropherogram

Services We Provide

HLA Genotyping:

• Low resolution (antigen level) by reverse SSO Luminex®
• High resolution class I and class II (allele level) by next-generation sequencing

HLA Antibody Testing:

• Solid phase antibody screening and identification (Luminex®)
• Crossmatching by flow cytometry

Disease Association and Pharmacogenomic Testing:

• HLA-A29 for Uveitis
• HLA B27 for Ankylosing Spondylitis
• HLA B5/51 for Behcet’s Disease
• DQ2/8 for Celiac Disease
• HLA DQB1*06:02 for Narcolepsy
• HLA B57 for Abacavir sensitivity
• HLA B15 for adverse medication reactions

Other single antigen assays may be ordered upon consultation with our team. We are happy to work with clinical partners to ensure that appropriate testing is requested.

Our Team

• Helene McMurray, Ph.D, Director —is a board-certified Fellow of the American College of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (F(ACHI))
•  Myra Coppage, Ph.D., is board certified in diagnostic immunology (HCLD/ABB) and is an Affiliate of ACHI (A(ACHI)).
• William Femec, Lab Supervisor

Our team is active members of the American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI).

Contact Us

• For more information or to request services, please call us at (585) 275-0985.