#43
SBTengine
, A SOPHISTICATED AND VERSATILE HLA SEQUENCING BASED TYPING SOFTWARE.
Erik H. Rozemuller PhD 1,2, Lennert S. Ploeger PhD 1, Geert J.P.A. Koene PhD 2, Wietse Mulder PhD 2 and Marcel G.J. Tilanus PhD 1,2. 1 Department for Pathology, UMC Utrecht, P.O. Box 85500, Utrecht, Netherlands and 2 Genome Diagnostics, c/o UMCU, P.O. Box 85500, Utrecht, Netherlands .
Sequencing based typing (SBT) is the gold standard for high resolution HLA typing. This advanced method has proven to be the most accurate strategy to date for tissue typing. However, full acceptance of the SBT strategy was hampered in part because it requires capital equipment, dedicated reagents and well-trained personnel. Moreover fully dedicated SBT software was lacking.
The sophisticated and versatile software SBTengine has significantly overcome part of these disadvantages. Here, we present the recent release of this package. It easily allows accurate analyses of most HLA loci, both class I (A, B 
C) and class II (DR, DP DQ). The analyses may be carried out with most commercial SBT kits on the market or with home brewed reagents. SBTengine may also be exploited for other polymorphic gene systems, e.g. KIR genes.
Analysis is highly automated: typings will be performed automatically; only when base calling cannot be determined with high reliability, the sequences have to be inspected manually.
The results of SBTengine will be exported in a comprehensive XML file format, containing all relevant SBT information, including allele assignment and the sequences. These XML files can easily be imported into e.g. hospital data management system. We happily demonstrate the advantage of the software package to the participants of the meeting. Alternatively a demo- or trial version of SBTengine may be downloaded from http://www.genomediagnostics.com.