Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) Typing or genotyping is a process used to determine the variation between genes in individuals that code for HLA proteins in their white blood cells. This process is important as it affects the way an individual’s immune system works and thus plays a role in how they respond to certain diseases, medicines, and transplants.
Traditionally, HLA typing has been done using methods such as PCR (polymerase chain reaction), which amplify small fragments of particular regions of DNA associated with each person’s genetic makeup; however, this method isn’t always accurate when detecting variations differences because only a few fragments can be analyzed at once.
New technological advances have increased accuracy by performing HLA analysis using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS). NGS processes large portions of genomic data comparison much more accurately compared to PCR-based approaches due to its ability to detect complex patterns over large sections of gene sequences in one go—making it better suited than PCR for pinpointing specific gene mutations or alterations associated with disease susceptibility or treatment responses. In addition to this being useful for discovering new associations between unique biomarkers within populations, NGS is also highly reproducible ensuring excellent quality assurance across testing centers creating simple scalability both geographically and nationally if need be.
Overall, understanding variations within people’s genomes through dedicated HLA genomics technology will prove invaluable, especially in medical applications including providing tailored healthcare strategies depending on an individual’s absolute risk factors regarding various serious health issues like autoimmune diseases and cancer types which present themselves at different ages throughout different genders/cultures worldwide.
