2020, ISSUE 1

immucor.com

Introducing the non-HLA mascot!Join us in the mascot naming fun on page 11

In This Issue2 Welcome from Immucor’s VP

US Sales, Transfusion and Specialty Diagnostics

2 2020–21 Events Calendar

3 The Future is HERE! Autoverification in the Transfusion Service

3 Enhancements to the LEARNTM website

4 A New Tool for Transplant Testing: LIFECODES® Non-HLA Antibody kit

5 Employee Spotlight: Patrick Waddy

6 ImmuLINK® 2.0: A New Journey Begins

7 Seeing Beyond the Limits of Complex Transfusion Cases

8 The new MIA FORATM NGS MFlex assay offers a real multiplex option

10 #ImmucorGreen

11 Mia mascot is named!

Innovation Marches On...

Introducing MIA FORA NGS

MFlex See page 8

Dedicated People. Expanding Capabilities.

APRIL 2020LabWeek: JOIN Us for Lab Week Webinars to complement your lunch time celebrations! April 19-25

MAY 2020 Mini Webinar: Prof. Dr. Clara Gorodezky May 13

JUNE 2020Webinar: Case Studies: Sid, Kidd, & Capture June 17

Mini Webinar: Dr. Sujatha Krishnakumar, PhD VP of Research at Immucor June 17

JULY 2020Mini Webinar: Rajalingam Raja, PhD, D(ABHI) University of California San Francisco July 8

AUGUST 2020Webinar: Identification & Management of patients with Weak D and Partial D phenotype August 12

SEPTEMBER 2020Webinar: HOT TOPIC in transplant medicine. More information will be made available closer to the date. September 9

OCTOBER 2020Mini Webinar: Maureen M. Miller MT(ASCP), CHT, CHS Yale School of Medicine October 14

NOVEMBER 2020Webinar: The Future is HERE: Autoverification in the Transfusion Service November 11

DECEMBER 2020Webinar: HOT TOPIC in transplant medicine. More information will be made available closer to the date. December 9

Register Now for a Webinar or “Immucor Mini” immucor.webinato.com/register

EventsWELCOME!It is an exciting time in our industry and at Immucor!

I am proud to lead the US sales team and help them support all of you - our customers. I am a long time blood banker, and have been with Immucor for 22 years. One of the most important things I learned by being an Immucor customer first - and then by supporting Immucor customers as a company executive - is understanding what is needed to help you provide the best patient care.

Over the last 1.5 years we launched the Echo Lumena®, Gemini and NEO Iris® in the US. With the Lumena launch we challenged ourselves to perform more than 1,000 upgrades or replacements in 18 months to ensure our customers benefitted from our latest technology. This was a busy time for our teams but I am pleased to say we achieved our goal. This took great teamwork and terrific commitment. The very positive feedback from our customers made it all worth the effort!

We are also excited because in January we announced the launch of the LIFECODES Non-HLA kit for both the Luminex® 200™ and FLEXMAP 3D®. This kit - designed to detect IgG antibodies to Non-HLA proteins - will help transplant teams increase the likelihood of a successful organ match. Check out page 4 for an article with more details!

On behalf of the entire Immucor team, thank you for allowing us to serve your transfusion and transplant testing needs. We are always open to your feedback. I can be reached at idemezzo@immucor.com, or feel free to speak with any of your Immucor representatives

Irene DeMezzo VP US Sales, Transfusion and Specialty Diagnostics

Seeing Beyond Limits

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The Future is HERE!Verification of Results in the Transfusion Service Your chemistry friends have been doing it for decades. Now, it is happening in the transfusion service… autoverification of results. In their AABB 2019 abstract, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital describe implementing autoverification in their transfusion service. The combined implementation of Galileo Echo® (v2.0), ImmuLINK, and a new BBIS allowed for the autoverification of negative and nondiscrepant type and screen, unit confirm, and Rh and K antigen typing tests.

The abstract details the total tests performed, autoverified tests, STAT turn-around-time metrics, and the impact of autoverification to the workload. The abstract concludes “We have demonstrated that autoverification within the blood bank is safe and efficient.”

SEE BEYOND LIMITS

You Asked. Immucor Listened.Enhancements to the LEARN website! This spring, Immucor proudly rolled out enhancements to our Lab Education And Resource Network – LEARN. These were based on feedback from you, our valuable customers.We are excited to announce the upgrade including:

• A more intuitive user interface

• Simplified access to webinar recordings

• ABHI CE credit for applicable courses

Through LEARN, users can earn continuing education credits at no charge by taking courses, viewing recorded webinars, and participating in self-study courses.

Check out the newly-upgraded site at learn.immucor.com with your same username and password!

If it is your first time accessing the site, click ‘REGISTER’ and follow the prompts to create a profile. Happy learning!

NEW LEARN USER INTERFACE

To learn more, join us for a webinar with

Stephanie Kinney, MD on 11 November 2020.

Click HERE to register

Click HERE to read this abstract.

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Beyond Expectations!

Antibody mediated rejection (AMR) is known to contribute to acute and chronic allograft rejection. HLA molecules are highly polymorphic and are the principal targets of humoral immune response. However, non-HLA antigens have also been implicated in the development of AMR. Non-HLA antibodies fall into two main immunological categories: alloantibodies and autoantibodies.

• Alloantibodes: are directed against polymorphic antigens and vary between donor and recipient.

• Autoantibodies that recognize self-antigen are usually cryptic and become exposed after tissue damage from transplant-related events.

Testing for non-HLA antibodies is a step towards antibody characterization and pre-transplant risk assessment for

transplant candidates. Several labs perform an endothelial cell crossmatch pre-transplant, but these tests do not provide any information on the identity of the antigen with which the antibody is reacting. Immucor is excited to announce that our LIFECODES Non-HLA Antibody Kit (Cat. No. 265500R) is now launched for use with both the Luminex 200 System**

and the FLEXMAP 3D. The Immucor LIFECODES Non-HLA Antibody Kit is an xMAP technology based assay comprised of

non-HLA antigens used to detect non-HLA antibodies.

To bring our Non-HLA Antibody Kit to market, Immucor collaborated with the global research community on the panel’s composition. Our

initial panel includes:

*Based on the 10µL serum protocol

**Available in the U.S. as RUO, in Europe for Performance Evaluation Only (PEO), and in other countries as RUO (as allowed under regulatory requirements).

A New Tool for Transplant Testing: LIFECODES Non-HLA Antibody kit

ACTIN COLLAGEN IV GDNF PECR

AGRN COLLAGEN V GSTT1 PLA2R1

APOL2 CXCL11 IFNG PRKCH

ATP5B CXCL9 KRT18 PRKCZ

CD40 ENO1 KRT8 SNRPB2

COLLAGEN I FIBRONECTIN1 LMNA TUBA1B

COLLAGEN II FLRT2 MYOSIN TUBULIN

COLLAGEN III GAPDH NCL VIM

The Immucor Non-HLA Antibody

assay workflow is identical to the

LIFECODES® Single Antigen assay. *

MICA is one of the most polymorphic and

extensively studied non-HLA antigenic

targets especially in renal transplantation.

Try our LIFECODES® LSA™ MIC kit**,

PN #265300R today!

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EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT on One of Immucor’s Longest-Serving

Employees: Patrick WaddyHave you ever wondered how Immucor supports customers around the globe? After all, we do not have employees in every country, in every town. While we have many direct Immucor offices around the world, we also rely on valuable partnerships with a network of distributors. These are companies that bring Immucor products and services to labs in the Earth’s four corners. They create interest in the scientific, economic and workflow benefits of our solutions, provide logistics through Customer Service, and deliver technical and field service after-sales support. All while Immucor invests in training and other programs to ensure our partners are fully capable and satisfy customers.

So for this CompatibiliT, we’ve turned the spotlight on our Vice President of Emerging Markets, whose team manages our strategic distributor partnerships: Patrick Waddy.

Q: What did you do before joining Immucor?

A: My professional history is as vast as the territory covered by our distribution partners. I grew up on a dairy farm in eastern Canada, worked as a lumberjack (I still have my power saw!), and then became a chartered accountant in the oil, gas and paper industries. That was a LONG time ago!

Q: Why and when did you join Immucor?

A: In 1988 an opportunity arose to join Dominion Biologicals Ltd. (DBL), based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The company was hugely interesting to me as I saw more intrinsic reward in helping to advance patient safety. I was employed as Chief Financial Officer and then President before the company was acquired by Immucor in 1996. So in total it has been more than 30 rewarding years!

Q: What are a few of your favorite things about working for Immucor?

A: I feel very privileged to work with the amazing teams I lead in Asia Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, India, parts of Europe and beyond. I am also honored to have strong distributor partnerships and customer relationships around the globe. Whether they relate to the practice of laboratory medicine, local economics or politics, varying cultures, or other factors, each region presents its own unique opportunities and challenges – seeing the Immucor team work together with our distribution partners to exceed customer expectations is very rewarding. Working for a company and with people who care so much and literally save lives is why I am still here today.

On behalf of all our current and prospective customers, employees and distribution partners, thank you Patrick for all your years of dedication to ensure patients in need of blood, organs or tissue get the right match that is safe, accessible and affordable

Seeing Beyond Limits

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ImmuLINK 2.0: A New Journey BeginsImmucor is excited to announce the launch of ImmuLINK 2.0! This upgrade contains several enhancements to the user interface driven by customer input and new exciting features that include:

manage

This new function will reduce the risk of transcription error and increase the traceability of all antibody detection / identification activities performed in your laboratory. Users now have the ability to verify automated assay result details populated in the lot-specific Master List within the ImmuLINK user interface.

For high volume BioArrayTM molecular Immunohematology users, ImmuLINK is now able to interface to the Qiagen QIAsymphony in order to simplify workflow.

The new Purge and Archive Tool has been designed to provide significant improvements in workflow and reliability even for very large data archives.

ImmuLINK 2.0 can now display the blood type of each donor unit next to the results for the CrossMatch test. An additional column, “Donor Type”, has been added to display the blood type. For a given recipient, it is now possible to review multiple donor units on the Sample Result page including the blood type of each available donor unit.

ImmuLINK will provide the ability to generate and save a digital PDF copy of the sample report on a networked repository. If desired, this new function can automatically send the PDF report directly to a networked printer.

Panel ID Module

QIAsymphony Integration

New Purge and Archive Tool

Crossmatch Enhancement

Export Sample Report to PDF

Easy. Efficient. Everywhere.

Seeing Beyond Limits

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Seeing Beyond the Limits of Complex Transfusion Cases

Immucor Regional Manager – Africa Mustapha Bennay, together with the Minister of Health, cutting the ribbon to officially launch Immucor’s technology in Tanzania.

Compatibility can seem elusive due to recent transfusions or a lack of rare antisera. Immucor’s BioArrayTM BeadChip molecular solutions use proprietary encoded microparticles, or “beads”, to perform quick and reliable molecular analysis of RBC antigens – even in a multiple-transfused patient. Immucor’s HEA molecular test has set the precedent for molecular RBC antigen typing through the use of BeadChip technology; identifying the most relevant RBC antigens plus three phenotypic variants from 11 blood groups simultaneously. To date, more than 1 million tests have been completed using BioArray BeadChip technology globally!

Did you know Immucor has a complete solution dedicated to molecular typing of red blood cell (RBC) and platelet antigens?

BioArray molecular products include:• HEA for red cell typing

• RHD and RHCE for Rh variant analysis*

• HPA for platelet typing*

If implementing molecular testing is not right for your laboratory, contact your Immucor representative who can help direct your samples to a laboratory using BioArray. Immucor DX, Immucor's CLIA certified / CAP accredited lab can also help, if needed.

• Clinical Benefits of Blood Group Genotyping in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease and Thalassemia"

• Hgb S Screening of Blood Donors

• RhD Molecular Testing

• FNAIT: Two Perspectives

• From C to e & the Rhs in Between

• Molecular Testing in the Blood Bank: Case Studies & Reimbursement Testimonial

• Serological Weak D Phenotypes to RHD Genotyping: How Will I Know? Part I

• Serological Weak D Phenotypes to RHD Genotyping: How Will I Know? Part II

• Balancing Availability and Specificity: The Challenge of the Provision of Blood for Sickle Cell Patients

To learn about the application of molecular immunohematology in transfusion diagnostics check out these webinar recordings on LEARN at www.learn.immucor.com:

*For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

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Innovation Marches On… Introducing MIA FORA NGS MFlexSince its launch, Immucor’s Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) kit for high resolution HLA typing, MIA FORA, has consistently evolved and improved.

MIA FORA NGS HLA Typing kit RUO release

MIA FORA NGS HLA Typing kit CE Marking Biomek 4000 and Hamilton Automation

Shorten the process by 1.5 hrs with addition of Qubit

1152 Bulk Kit release MIA FORA Registry SW release Grow registry business

MIA FORA FLEX* Release• 5, 6, 9 and 11 genes• 24 & 96 sample size• MiniSeq, MiSeq, NextSeq• MIA FORA Software v3.0

DECEMBER 2015

FEBRUARY 2016

AUGUST 2016

2017 - 2018

DECEMBER 2016

Beckman i5 and i7 automation

Workflow improvements with bead based size seletction Decrease instrumentation 4 Freeze Thaws for 96 test kit

iSeq Validated for MIA FORA

MIA FORA MFlex

MIA FORA SW Version 4.5

MAY 2018

MAY 2019

SEPTEMBER 2019

FEBRUARY 2020

JANUARY 2020

Listening to our customers in order to develop the next generation of HLA Typing kits, we heard you want:

• Easier PCR setup• Reduced instrumentation and steps• Quicker turnaround time• No compromise on first-pass efficiency

Put simply - increase ease-of-use without sacrificing the quality of results.

One way to accomplish this is to multiplex the initial long range PCR reaction, decreasing the number of steps and eliminating the need for gene balancing. This is what Immucor has achieved with our new multiplex kit, MIA FORA NGS MFlex!

4.5 Software Launched!Overall speed has improved by six times and significant improvements have been

made to project, sample, and locus review times.

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Seeing Beyond LimitsThe new MIA FORA NGS MFlex* assay offers a real multiplex option: All PCR reactions in one tube for both 6 and 11 loci. Kits are available as RUO and CE-IVD and in 24, 96, and 1152 test configurations.

The single well multiplex amplification reaction improvements have led to a large decrease in time, steps, equipment and consumables. Long range PCR setup now only takes 15 minutes and the cycling time is 2 hours shorter! The MFlex assay now goes directly to library preparation from amplification, eliminating the quantification and gene balancing & pooling steps; shortening the assay by a total of 4 hours!

Long-Range PCRHands-on time~15 min

Amplification~4 hrs

Library Construction

Hands-on time~30 minTotal time 2 hrs

Library Quantification

Hands-on time~10 minTotal time~10 min

Size SelectionHands-on time~10 min

Total time 45 min

SequencingHands-on time~30 minTotal time 17 to 24 hrs

Library Amplification

Hands-on time~10 minTotal time~30 min

Data Analysis

Quantification ofPCR ProductsTotal time 1 hr

Gene Balancing and PoolingTotal time 1 hrXX XX

The remainder of the assay maintains the benefits of the MIA FORA FLEX kit, including the flexible option to use either a bead-based size selection process or the Pippin prep for size selection, pre- and post-PCR automation solutions, and multiple sequencing options now including the iSeq, to fit low to high testing volumes.

To learn more about how MIA FORA NGS MFlex can assist your laboratory, arrange a demo or transition to the multiplex kit, contact your local Immucor sales representative today!

*For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

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#ImmucorGREEN

IMMUCOR IS GOING GREEN!

We know you have heard of “Immucor Purple”.Now, we are proud to introduce #ImmucorGREEN.Immucor wants to show love to the planet. Our core values that guide our every decision, including this one, are respect, integrity, teamwork, and achievement. #ImmucorGREEN allows us to respect the environment and continue improving patients’ lives. We are committed to this green initiative with complete integrity. Through teamwork, we will transition to more eco-friendly practices. The achievement of this green commitment will lead to a more sustainable and cleaner planet.

Immucor is implementing specific plans including:

With our commitment and your support, we will be able to make this world a better place to live.

Watch on our social media channels as our green mission evolves and give us feedback by commenting or sharing our #ImmucorGREEN posts.

• Using shipping boxes made from recyclable materials. Plus, the boxes themselves are also 100% recyclable.

• Switching to more energy efficient lightbulbs.

• Installing electric car charging stations in our parking lots.

• Implementing energy efficient equipment in our offices and laboratories

• Reminding our staff to consider the environment before printing electronic communications.

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Mia mascot is named!

In the last edition of CompatibiliT, we launched a contest in which you suggested names for our Mia mascot. Some of the submissions were geographically or serologically accurate; others were comical! It was a tight competition! A final poll of ALL Immucor employees led us to the winning selection, Kangti – which translates to ‘antibody’ in Mandarin! Like all of our mascots, Kangti was designed to be semi-serologically correct with a smidgeon of creative license for fun:

Say My Name, Say My Name…

Non-HLA is another mascot that we claim…

We are having fun anthropomorphizing our mascots so let’s do it again! The non-HLA mascot is another recent addition to the mascot gang. He was designed to represent those antigens important in transplant, yet not a part of the HLA system… hence, the notations on the turtle’s shell. The two heads represents the response nature of these non-HLA antibodies: they have normal functions in cellular degeneration but may be elevated when transplant organ injury or dysfunction occurs. In other words, the antibodies may

be as diligent as the tortoise in Aesop’s fable or may transform into an angry teenage mutant ninja turtle when antibody-mediate rejection is looming

So, channel your inner Dr. Dolittle, and submit a name for our non-HLA mascot at the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/nonHLAnaming

Remember, names can be funny, thoughtful, biologically correct, politically incorrect…you get the idea! Have fun with it!

Let’s Name It!

Seeing Beyond Limits

• Just as the gene coding for Mia is a hybrid, our Mia mascot is a hybrid panda-dragon. The panda and dragon are also a nod to the primary populations where Mia has the largest occurrence.

• Her magnifying glass and 007 charm (on her double-helix, DNA necklace) are a play on her name, M-I-A - think undercover super agent (like James Bond)!

• The Capture logo on her purse is because Capture’s Gp.Mur plates are proven super-sleuths for this antibody.

• If you are REALLY observant, you will notice that Mia’s scales are identical to those on our MNS mascot which makes sense because Mia is a part of the MNS system.

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For further information on any Immucor products, or if you have any questions, comments or suggestions for future articles for CompatibiliT, please contact us at marketinginformation@immucor.com or contact your local Immucor representative.

Immucor, Inc. • 3130 Gateway Drive, P.O. Box 5625, Norcross, GA 30091-5625TEL: 855.IMMUCOR (855.466.8267) or 770.441.2051 • FAX: 770.441.3807