Projects
International Histocompatibility Working Group in Haematopoietic Cell Transplantation
Effie Petersdorf and Mari Malkki
The International Histocompatibility Working Group (IHWG) in Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation (HCT) was spearheaded in 1996 to meet a worldwide need to understand the transplantation barrier through the systematic analysis of HLA and non-HLA genetic variation. Today, this international collaborative effort encompasses 240 transplant centers, 21 donor and transplant registries, and 37 laboratories. The transplantation database is descriptive of clinical information, high resolution typing for HLA-A, C, B, DRB1, DQB1, DPB1 genes, and genetic polymorphisms of selected non-HLA genes, for 16,386 unrelated donor transplants performed worldwide. The Petersdorf laboratory (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle) is the IHWG Coordinating Laboratory and the FHCRC maintains the database. A total of 12 studies investigating the genetics of the transplant barrier in unrelated HCT are in progress, and new studies in cord blood and haploidentical transplantation have been developed and initiated. Working group members participate at many different levels including contribution of genetic data and clinical data, and hypothesis generation and analysis. The International HLA Workshops have served as the primary venue for the working group’s formal discussions and presentation of data. New members of the clinical transplantation and immunogenetics research communities are invited to contact Dr. Effie Petersdorf and Dr. Mari Malkki for more information and to discuss their interests in joining the working group.
You can also download a PDF of the latest IHWG HCT Newsletter here.
Contacts:
Please let us know if you would like to participate in the workshop. We will provide you with further information as the project proceeds.
Email: epetersd [at] fhcrc [dot] org or mmalkki [at] fhcrc [dot] org
Download a PDF of the ASHI 2011 Presentation - download PDF file.
