September 2010

Olerup SSP AB to present at this year’s ASHI

At the upcoming ASHI meeting in Hollywood, FL, Olerup SSP AB will hold a symposium on:

Monday, Sep 27 from noon – 2PM

Those of you participating at the ASHI meeting are of course very welcome to join us during lunch. The symposium will be held at The Westin Hotel, Diplomat Ballroom 2. During the lunch meeting data will be presented from a study conducted in cooperation between Olerup SSP AB and Professor Wolfgang Helmberg looking for ambiguities using the Olerup SSP^® kits analysed by HELMBERG-SCORE^™. Furthermore Professor Helmberg will have a lecture on the currently update version of SCORE^™, developed in cooperation with Olerup SSP AB. Anna Hedlund, Head of R & D at Olerup SSP AB, will share information of a number of recent additions to the Olerup Product Line.

Click here for a detailed program.

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Olerup SSP^® kits show low frequency of typing ambiguities

The PCR-SSP technique is well established within HLA laboratories since many years. Among many advantages this technique is fast, the results are obtained in less than 2.5 hours, and cost effective due to the low need for equipment. Furthermore, it is recognized as flexible, allowing both low and high resolution typings with a low frequency of ambiguities.

Currently more than 5,000 HLA alleles are recognized and the rate of discovery of new alleles has been very high during the two last years with on average of 3 new HLA alleles being reported each day. The SSP typing technique is not only the fastest of the available HLA typing methods as the discrimination between alleles takes place during the PCR cycling process, but also the technique that gives the highest resolution as each primer pair defines two sequence motifs on the same chromosome, i.e. located in cis. With the SSP technique it is also easy to add reagents for polymorphisms in other locations than exons 2 and 3 for HLA Class I and exon 2 for HLA Class II, which further increases the resolution compared to the SSOP and SBT methods.

The aims of the present study were to investigate the frequency of typing ambiguities for low and high resolution SSP typings in two sets of samples. DNA was collected from 102 randomly selected donors. Also 102 consecutive UCLA exchange DNAs were included. These samples were typed by the most recent lots of low and high resolution Olerup SSP® kits. All data were analysed by the SCORETM software. More detailed results will be presented during the meeting. To order an abstract from the study, please click here (available after the ASHI meeting).

Assoc Prof. Olle Olerup

“This study shows that The Olerup SSP^® kits give excellent resolution for low and high resolution HLA typings with low ambiguity frequencies, but the kits have to be constantly and frequently up-dated for new HLA alleles in order to maintain this level of resolution” says assoc Professor Olle Olerup, founder and CEO of Olerup SSP AB.

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Analyzing the SSP results using The Helmberg-SCORE^™

Helmberg-SCORE^™ has been the first software to implement the new HLA allele nomenclature worldwide. Prof. Helmberg will highlight in his presentation the new features and tools of his software package that support the laboratory staff both in HLA typing and understanding of HLA alleles in various aspects. This presentation will demonstrate how SCORE^™ can help to deal with the ever increasing number of HLA alleles.

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HIGHLIGHTS - new Olerup SSP^® products

Focusing on keeping the Olerup SSP^® product line up-to-date and ready to meet future demands of environmental and personnel safety Olerup SSP AB has recently launched five new products that all in different ways complete our product line for successful PCR-SSP HLA typing. This short presentation highlights the launch of Olerup SSP^® GelRed^™ dropper bottle and our four latest SSP kits. The Olerup SSP^® GelRed^™ dropper provides our customers with a safer and more environmentally friendly alternative to ethidium bromide. “These four latest PCR-SSP typing products DPB1-DQ-DR, DRB1*14:01/14:54, HLA-A*80 and HLA-B*73 are all examples of how the Olerup SSP^® product line is continuously updated and improved for increased usability”, says Anna Hedlund, Head of Research & Development at Olerup SSP AB.

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