By Bio-IT World Staff

January 26, 2016 | Illumina has purchased Conexio Genomics, an HLA typing company based in Fremantle, Australia. Conexio was one of the first companies, in the mid-2000s, to build a service around using next-generation sequencing technology to match tissue donors and recipients, by genotyping key variants in the HLA region of the human genome.

The HLA region plays an important role in the immune system, and a poor match indicates a high risk that a transplant recipient will reject a donor organ. However, the locus is an area of heavy genetic variation and notoriously difficult to sequence. Analyzing the HLA region requires highly specialized software and genotyping panels.

Last year, Illumina introduced its own kit for HLA typing, called the TruSight HLA Sequencing Panel, which is designed to run on the company’s MiSeq benchtop sequencers. Conexio provided the software for that project. As a subsidiary of Illumina, it will continue developing products for more precise organ transplant matching.

Financial terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.