1. Histocompatibility Committee
Fall 2016

2. Recent Public Comment Proposals
Adding DQA1 Equivalency Table
This proposal adds an HLA DQA1 equivalency table to policy that identifies the relationship between parent antigens and corresponding allelic subtypes.
Board approved & pending implementation – target date is first quarter 2017

3. Policy Implementation Dates
Histo Bylaws Rewrite: Phase 2
This proposal added the general supervisor to the list of laboratory key personnel.
BOD approved, IT programming complete, waiting for OMB approval of forms (membership applications) before implementation.
Annual Update to Equivalency Tables (2015)
Adds alleles to HLA antigen dropdown options in UNet.
Changes HLA-DPB, HLA-DQA, and HLA-DQB references in policy to HLA-DPB1, HLA-DQA1, and HLA-DQB1
Adds dropdown menus to Dr51, Dr52, Dr53
BOD approved, pending implementation, target date is second quarter of 2017

4. Committee Projects Histo Testing Guidance Document
Result of Comprehensive Histocompatibility Rewrite project. Moves 28 sections of old policies and bylaws into a guidance document for member labs.
Guidance document in final stages of revision. Anticipated submission to BOD for December meeting.
Review of HLA Tables 2016 (DPB1)
Building an unacceptable antigen tool into policy for DPB1 – Given the complexity and unique attributes of DPB1, this table will function differently than other equivalency tables.
Subcommittee reviewing literature on epitopes to determine which ones to include
Assessing possibility of developing a computer-assisted tool for helping determining DPB1 compatibility for patients with DPB1 antibody.

5. Committee Projects Addressing HLA Typing Errors in DonorNet®
Committee working on process improvements to reduce/prevent critical HLA typing errors on donors/candidates resulting in incorrect match runs and organ allocation.
As a number of “errors” are the result of transcriptional and parent/split calls, subcommittee is finalizing a memo to be sent to all HLA laboratories requesting increased awareness of such errors
Subcommittee is reviewing options for programming changes to DonorNet® aimed at reducing errors.
Suggestions include: duplicate data entry, “locked” HLA data fields once entry complete, “flags/alerts” to indicate potentially incorrect data.

6. Committee Projects
Changes to KAS CPRA and Priority for Patients Undergoing Desensitization
Building into KAS the ability for patients to maintain PRA priority points when undergoing a desensitization protocol
Preliminary survey results showed favorable support for this concept
Committee to determine what data to request to best define the problem and submit the project to the POC for approval

7. Questions?
Robert Bray, PhD Committee Chair Robert Hunter Committee Liaison