Grant: Idea to Innovation

The ABO system includes the A, B, O and AB groups. The markers for these groups are sugars that 'decorate' our cells and tissues, including our organs. Traditionally transplants are only performed with ABO-compatible donors but sometimes this barrier is crossed to allow a bigger pool of donors that includes ABO-incompatible individuals. To do this safely, we must measure ABO antibodies in the patient's blood to the donor ABO sugars because these antibodies could cause rejection. But the only test available to detect ABO antibodies was developed in 1901 and has many limitations. It focusses on red blood cells and not the specific ABO sugars that are on organs.Goals of this project:We developed a completely new way to measure ABO antibodies by attaching individual ABO sugars to small plastic beads. Antibodies in the patient's blood then stick to these beads and can be detected with a special machine. Our results so far show that this method has great promise for transplant patients. Right now, our lab can offer the new assay as a central testing site but this arrangement results in a delay in patients and programs getting the fastest results. Next, we need to make it possible for transplant programs worldwide to do this test in their own lab to support patient care. We propose here to create a 'ABOi test kit' that laboratories already having the equipment could purchase to test their own patients. Summary:Using our new ABO antibody detection method allows patients more opportunities to be safely transplanted with shorter wait-times. The kit proposed in this work will make it possible for transplant programs to run this test in their own clinical laboratories to offer the fastest testing process for transplant patients.