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Conference Program

APHIA 2026 JOINT CONFERENCE OF THE 19TH INTERNATIONAL HLA AND IMMUNOGENETICS WORKSHOP – “DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INNOVATION”

Mon25th May
Tue26th May
Wed27th May
Thu28th May
1600 – 1700APHIA Council Meeting
1600 – 1730REGISTRATION OPENS
1730 – 1830OPENING CEREMONY
Prof Nada Hamad
Equity with an intersectional lens in Bone Marrow Transplantation
1830 – 2030WELCOME COCKTAILS
Registration Open
0830 – 0930HAEMATOPOIETIC CELL TRANSPLANTATION PLENARY SESSION 1
Chairs: J Moses & S D’Silvia — Sponsored by Thermofisher
0830 – 0855Prof Effie Petersdorf – Immunogenetics of Allogeneic Transplantation
0855 – 0915Dr Dianne De Santis – Beyond Classical HLA: Do Extended MHC Haplotypes Influence Transplant Immunogenetics?
0915 – 0945ABSTRACT SESSION 1
Sponsored by Thermofisher
0915 – 0925Carmel O’Brien (Virtual) – Immunogenetic Population Modelling and HLA Match Likelihoods in the Australian and New Zealand HCT Donor Registries
0925 – 0935Heather Dunckley – The impact of HLA diversity on equity of unrelated donor haematopoietic cell transplantation in New Zealand
0935 – 0945Tengteng Zhang – Differential clinical impact of HLA-DPA1~DPB1 linkage mismatches in 14/14-matched unrelated donor HSCT: a multicenter retrospective study from CMDP revealing age- and disease-specific risk patterns
0945 – 1000Thermofisher: Expanded HLA Genotyping with HybriTypeTM NGS 18 Loci Panel
Speaker: David Calvanese
1000 – 1030COFFEE AND TEA BREAK
Sponsored by DKMS
1030 – 1140HAEMATOPOIETIC CELL TRANSPLANTATION PLENARY SESSION 2
Chairs: H Dunckley & D De Santis — Sponsored by Werfen
1030 – 1050Prof Nada Hamad – Advancing EDI in BMT: From Principles to Practice
1050 – 1115Prof Medhat Askar – A strategic systems thinking topic: The Global Minimal Standards for Histocompatibility Testing: Democratization of Best Practices
1115 – 1140Prof Luca Vago – Mechanisms of Immune Escape and Relapse after allogeneic HCT
1140 – 1240WERFEN Symposium: Elevating HLA Confidence — Where High Resolution Science Meets Real Time Impact
Speakers: Dr. Ramona Chopra, Lisa Waltham, Young Seo
1240 – 1330LUNCH BREAK
1330 – 1420CELLULAR THERAPY PLENARY SESSION 3
Chairs: L D’Orsogna & K Kittisares
1330 – 1355Prof Nattiya Hirankarn – Advancing the Frontiers of Immunotherapy: HLA-Restricted NeoAg Vaccines and CAR T-Cell Innovation in Cancer and SLE
1355 – 1420Prof Suradej Hongeng – Real experience of locally produced CAR T cells and the future of cancer immunotherapy with circular mRNA
1420 – 1545IMMUNOGENETICS PLENARY SESSION 4
Chairs: D Thammanichanond & R Rajalingam — Sponsored by GenDx
1430 – 1455Dr Uma Kanga – Long non coding RNAs and non classical HLA: possible markers to predict rejection
1455 – 1520Prof Paul Norman – Polymorphic interactions of natural killer cell receptors with HLA-peptide complexes
1520 – 1545Dr Ritu Aggarwal – Beyond the Classical: The Role of Non-Classical HLA Molecules in Cancer
1545 – 1550DKMS Vendor Pitch: Partner Area — Typing services, digitalized
Speaker: Marcus Balcerek
1550 – 1615COFFEE AND TEA BREAK
1615 – 1633GenDx: Introducing NGS-Turbo® and NGS-ProntoFLX® — Revolutionizing Rapid High Resolution HLA Typing using ONT sequencing technology
Speaker: Daan ‘t Hart
1640 – 1740TX MILLER STUDENT AWARD Abstract Session
Chairs: R Bontrop & D De Santis
1640 – 1655Rachel Cassar – Enhancing HLA antibody assessment in sensitized patients using AXE adsorption and elution method
1655 – 1710Emmett Wong – The Synergistic Impact of Combined HLA-DR and HLA-DQ De Novo Donor-Specific Antibodies on Rejection
1710 – 1725Matthew Glasenapp – HLA-Resolve: High-Resolution HLA Haplotyping from Long-Read Hybrid Capture
1725 – 1740Rakshit Rakshit – Prevalence of HLA Phenotypes in a Cohort of North-West India and Their Association with End-Stage Renal Disease
1745 – 1900WINE & CHEESE POSTER SESSION
1930 – 2200INVITED SPEAKERS DINNER
Registration Open
0830 – 0920SOLID ORGAN TRANSPLANTATION PLENARY SESSION 5
Chairs: L Goddard & A Lata — Sponsored by Werfen
0830 – 0855Assoc Prof Lloyd D’Orsogna – Improving access to kidney transplantation: How we allocate donors to highly sensitised recipients in the age of virtual crossmatching and Imlifidase
0855 – 0920Narelle Watson – OrganMatch — The digital backbone of the Australian Transplant System
0920 – 0950ABSTRACT SESSION 2
Sponsored by Werfen
0920 – 0930Nuchjarnun Choktaweesak – From Bench to Bedside: Evaluating Oxford Nanopore HLA Typing and Its Correlation with Graft Rejection in Kidney Transplant Recipients
0930 – 0940Wathsala Munasinghe – Impact of Australian kidney allocation algorithm changes on northern territory renal transplant recipient outcomes
0940 – 0950Inseong Oh – Prediction Models for Kidney Graft Outcomes Integrating Pre-Transplant Non-HLA Antibody Panels
0950 – 1005Werfen: Powering Patient Care — Navigating the Transplant Portfolio
Speaker: Srishti Sawhney
1005 – 1030COFFEE AND TEA BREAK
Sponsored by DKMS
1030 – 1155SOLID ORGAN TRANSPLANTATION PLENARY SESSION 6
Chairs: N Watson & U Kanga — Sponsored by Thermofisher
1030 – 1055Assoc Prof Lucy Sullivan – Non-HLA Antibody Testing: Still a Research Tool or Ready for Prime Time?
1055 – 1120Dr Eric Spierings – Molecular Matching: The Epitope Pathway to Equity in Transplantation
1120 – 1145Prof Raja Rajalingam – Innovative Histocompatibility Strategies Enhance Equity and Efficiency in Kidney Allocation: Evidence from 10-Year Outcomes of 2,600 Transplants
1145 – 1155CareDx: AlloSeq Nano — HLA and ABO Genotyping in a Single Assay by Long-Read Sequencing for Robust and Rapid Results
1155 – 1215ABSTRACT SESSION 3
Sponsored by Thermofisher
1155 – 1205Cassandra Kennedy – Desensitisation of a highly sensitised cardiac patient with daratumumab: the laboratory experience
1205 – 1215Samuel Robinson – HLA-KIR Interactions Protect Against Chronic Lung Allograft Dysfunction After Lung Transplantation
1215 – 1230Thermofisher Vendor Pitch
1230 – 1320LUNCH BREAK
1320 – 1420Thermofisher Symposium: Advancing Serologic Characterization Applications
Speaker: Dr Kazutoyo Osoegawa
1420 – 1510IMMUNOGENETICS PLENARY SESSION 7
Chairs: A Thornton & L Sullivan
1420 – 1445Dr Anne Halpin – ABO histocompatibility: Tools for immune risk assessment
1445 – 1510Dr Surakameth Mahasirimongkol – How Thailand’s PGx Strategy is Saving Lives at Scale
1510 – 1530ABSTRACT SESSION 4
1510 – 1520Eun-Suk Kang – Prediction of Post-transplantation Outcome Using Epitope Matching Technology
1520 – 1530Lloyd D’Orsogna – Simultaneous HLA and ABO A1/A2 Genotyping Using Rapid Oxford Nanopore Sequencing in Deceased Organ Donors
1530 – 1600COFFEE AND TEA BREAK
1600 – 1618TBG Biotechnology: Automated Nanopore Sequencing
Speaker: Yoo-Sung Hwang
1620 – 1715INFECTION AND IMMUNITY PLENARY SESSION 8
Chairs: R Aggarwal & N Hirankarn — Sponsored by TBG Biotechnology
1620 – 1645Dr Nicole Mifsud – The immunopeptidomic landscape in transplantation
1645 – 1710Dr Katsushi Tokunaga – Diversity of Immune Multigene Families: Genomic Basis of Disease Associations
1710 – 1730ABSTRACT SESSION 5
Sponsored by TBG Biotechnology
1710 – 1720You Min Ahn – First molecular insight into HLA-C contribution to COVID-19 outcome
1720 – 1730Silvana Gaudieri – The impact of accumulating immune adaptation in circulating strains of HIV-1 in Western Australia
1830Bus transfer to conference dinner
1900 – 2200CONFERENCE DINNER
0830 – 0945BIOINFORMATICS PLENARY SESSION 9
Chairs: M Diviney & R Scammell — Sponsored by GenDx
0830 – 0855Dr James Robinson – HLA Bioinformatics; Navigating increasing complexity and volume
0855 – 0920Dr Kazutoyo Osoegawa – HLA Serotypes
0920 – 0945Dr Nicholas Brown – Informatics tools for clinical HLA laboratory data
0945 – 1005ABSTRACT SESSION 6
0945 – 0955Omar Cornejo – Ancestry analysis of International Histocompatibility Working Group cell lines: beyond geographic labels
0955 – 1005Junyu Deng – HLA-DAP: A standardized framework for global synthesis of HLA-disease associations
1005 – 1030COFFEE AND TEA BREAK
1035 – 1100BIOINFORMATICS PLENARY SESSION 10
Chairs: H Dunckley & N Mifsud
1035 – 1100Dr Pierre-Antoine Gourraud – From HLA to Biomedical Data warehouse: an unexpected journey in data-driven medicine
1100 – 1120ABSTRACT SESSION 7
1100 – 1110Fredrick Mobegi (Virtual) – HLAhaploTools: A Bioinformatics Suite for Comprehensive Analysis of Classical and Non-Classical HLA Haplotypes in Extended Families
1110 – 1120James Robinson – Simplifying IPD-IMGT/HLA Database submission: data brokering with the European Nucleotide Archive
1120 – 1220BEST ABSTRACT SESSION
Chairs: D De Santis & D Thammanichanond
1120 – 1135Kulvara Kittisares – Mining HLA-DM-Sensitive HLA-DP-Alloreactive TCR for Cellular Immunotherapy of Leukemia
1135 – 1150Vinicius Stelet – Explainable Machine Learning Decodes Age Thresholds and Heterogeneous Survival Dynamics in 16,458 Hematologic Malignancy Patients undergoing Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation
1150 – 1205Jacob Shujui Hsu – High-resolution T Cell Receptor Allele Typing in Biobank-scale Whole-genome Sequencing
1205 – 1220Nicholas Pollock – Creating fully representative MHC reference haplotypes
1220 – 1230CLOSING CEREMONY
Monday, 25th May 2026
1600 – 1700 APHIA Council Meeting
1600 – 1730 REGISTRATION OPENS
1730 – 1830 OPENING CEREMONY
Prof Nada Hamad – Equity with an intersectional lens in Bone Marrow Transplantation
1830 – 2030 WELCOME COCKTAILS
Tuesday, 26th May 2026
Registration Open
0830 – 0930 HCT PLENARY SESSION 1 (Chairs: J Moses & S D’Silvia — Sponsored by Thermofisher)
Prof Effie Petersdorf – Immunogenetics of Allogeneic Transplantation
Dr Dianne De Santis – Beyond Classical HLA: Do Extended MHC Haplotypes Influence Transplant Immunogenetics?
0915 – 0945 ABSTRACT SESSION 1 (Sponsored by Thermofisher)
Carmel O’Brien (Virtual) – Immunogenetic Population Modelling and HLA Match Likelihoods
Heather Dunckley – The impact of HLA diversity on equity of unrelated donor HCT in NZ
Tengteng Zhang – Differential clinical impact of HLA-DPA1~DPB1 linkage mismatches
0945 – 1000 Thermofisher Vendor Pitch
David Calvanese – Expanded HLA Genotyping with HybriTypeTM NGS 18 Loci Panel
1000 – 1030 COFFEE AND TEA BREAK (Sponsored by DKMS)
1030 – 1140 HCT PLENARY SESSION 2 (Chairs: H Dunckley & D De Santis — Sponsored by Werfen)
Prof Nada Hamad – Advancing EDI in BMT: From Principles to Practice
Prof Medhat Askar – Global Minimal Standards for Histocompatibility Testing
Prof Luca Vago – Mechanisms of Immune Escape and Relapse after allogeneic HCT
1140 – 1240 WERFEN Symposium
Speakers: Dr. Ramona Chopra, Lisa Waltham, Young Seo
1240 – 1330 LUNCH BREAK
1330 – 1420 CELLULAR THERAPY PLENARY SESSION 3 (Chairs: L D’Orsogna & K Kittisares)
Prof Nattiya Hirankarn – Advancing the Frontiers of Immunotherapy
Prof Suradej Hongeng – Real experience of locally produced CAR T cells
1420 – 1545 IMMUNOGENETICS PLENARY SESSION 4 (Chairs: D Thammanichanond & R Rajalingam — Sponsored by GenDx)
Dr Uma Kanga – Long non coding RNAs and non classical HLA
Prof Paul Norman – Polymorphic interactions of NK cell receptors with HLA-peptide complexes
Dr Ritu Aggarwal – Beyond the Classical: Non-Classical HLA Molecules in Cancer
1545 – 1550 DKMS Vendor Pitch (Marcus Balcerek)
1550 – 1615 COFFEE AND TEA BREAK
1615 – 1633 GenDx Presentation/Vendor Pitch (Daan ‘t Hart)
1640 – 1740 TX MILLER STUDENT AWARD Abstract Session (Chairs: R Bontrop & D De Santis)
Rachel Cassar / Emmett Wong / Matthew Glasenapp / Rakshit Rakshit
1745 – 1900 WINE & CHEESE POSTER SESSION
1930 – 2200 INVITED SPEAKERS DINNER
Wednesday, 27th May 2026
Registration Open
0830 – 0920 SOT PLENARY SESSION 5 (Chairs: L Goddard & A Lata — Sponsored by Werfen)
Assoc Prof Lloyd D’Orsogna – Improving access to kidney transplantation
Narelle Watson – OrganMatch — The digital backbone of the Australian Transplant System
0920 – 0950 ABSTRACT SESSION 2 (Sponsored by Werfen)
Nuchjarnun Choktaweesak / Wathsala Munasinghe / Inseong Oh
0950 – 1005 Werfen Vendor Pitch
Srishti Sawhney – Powering Patient Care: Navigating the Transplant Portfolio
1005 – 1030 COFFEE AND TEA BREAK (Sponsored by DKMS)
1030 – 1155 SOT PLENARY SESSION 6 (Chairs: N Watson & U Kanga — Sponsored by Thermofisher)
Assoc Prof Lucy Sullivan – Non-HLA Antibody Testing
Dr Eric Spierings – Molecular Matching: The Epitope Pathway to Equity
Prof Raja Rajalingam – Innovative Histocompatibility Strategies
1145 – 1155 CareDx 10-minute talk (AlloSeq Nano)
1155 – 1215 ABSTRACT SESSION 3 (Sponsored by Thermofisher)
Cassandra Kennedy / Samuel Robinson
1215 – 1230 Thermofisher Vendor Pitch
1230 – 1320 LUNCH BREAK
1320 – 1420 Thermofisher Symposium: Advancing Serologic Characterization Applications
Speaker: Dr Kazutoyo Osoegawa
1420 – 1510 IMMUNOGENETICS PLENARY SESSION 7 (Chairs: A Thornton & L Sullivan)
Dr Anne Halpin – ABO histocompatibility
Dr Surakameth Mahasirimongkol – How Thailand’s PGx Strategy is Saving Lives at Scale
1510 – 1530 ABSTRACT SESSION 4
Eun-Suk Kang / Lloyd D’Orsogna
1530 – 1600 COFFEE AND TEA BREAK
1600 – 1618 TBG Biotechnology: Automated Nanopore Sequencing (Yoo-Sung Hwang)
1620 – 1715 INFECTION AND IMMUNITY PLENARY SESSION 8 (Chairs: R Aggarwal & N Hirankarn — Sponsored by TBG Biotechnology)
Dr Nicole Mifsud – The immunopeptidomic landscape in transplantation
Dr Katsushi Tokunaga – Diversity of Immune Multigene Families: Genomic Basis of Disease Associations
1710 – 1730 ABSTRACT SESSION 5 (Sponsored by TBG Biotechnology)
You Min Ahn / Silvana Gaudieri
1830 Bus transfer to conference dinner
1900 – 2200 CONFERENCE DINNER
Thursday, 28th May 2026
0830 – 0945 BIOINFORMATICS PLENARY SESSION 9 (Chairs: M Diviney & R Scammell — Sponsored by GenDx)
Dr James Robinson – HLA Bioinformatics
Dr Kazutoyo Osoegawa – HLA Serotypes
Dr Nicholas Brown – Informatics tools for clinical HLA laboratory data
0945 – 1005 ABSTRACT SESSION 6
Omar Cornejo / Junyu Deng
1005 – 1030 COFFEE AND TEA BREAK
1035 – 1100 BIOINFORMATICS PLENARY SESSION 10 (Chairs: H Dunckley & N Mifsud)
Dr Pierre-Antoine Gourraud – From HLA to Biomedical Data warehouse
1100 – 1120 ABSTRACT SESSION 7
Fredrick Mobegi (Virtual) / James Robinson
1120 – 1220 BEST ABSTRACT SESSION (Chairs: D De Santis & D Thammanichanond)
Kulvara Kittisares / Vinicius Stelet / Jacob Shujui Hsu / Nicholas Pollock
1220 – 1230 CLOSING CEREMONY

Invited Speakers & Presentations

Monday, 25th May 2026
Prof Nada Hamad (Opening Ceremony)
Equity with an intersectional lens in Bone Marrow Transplantation
Tuesday, 26th May 2026
Prof Effie Petersdorf
Immunogenetics of Allogeneic Transplantation
Dr Dianne De Santis
Beyond Classical HLA: Do Extended MHC Haplotypes Influence Transplant Immunogenetics?
Prof Medhat Askar
A strategic systems thinking topic: The Global Minimal Standards for Histocompatibility Testing: Democratization of Best Practices
Prof Luca Vago
Mechanisms of Immune Escape and Relapse after allogeneic HCT
Prof Nada Hamad
Advancing EDI in BMT: From Principles to Practice
Prof Nattiya Hirankarn
Advancing the Frontiers of Immunotherapy: HLA-Restricted NeoAg Vaccines and CAR T-Cell Innovation in Cancer and SLE
Prof Suradej Hongeng
Real experience of locally produced CAR T cells and the future of cancer immunotherapy with circular mRNA
Dr Uma Kanga
Long non coding RNAs and non classical HLA: possible markers to predict rejection
Prof Paul Norman
Polymorphic interactions of natural killer cell receptors with HLA-peptide complexes
Dr Ritu Aggarwal
Beyond the Classical: The Role of Non-Classical HLA Molecules in Cancer
Wednesday, 27th May 2026
Assoc Prof Lloyd D’Orsogna
Improving access to kidney transplantation: How we allocate donors to highly sensitised recipients in the age of virtual crossmatching and Imlifidase
Narelle Watson
OrganMatch – The digital backbone of the Australian Transplant System
Assoc Prof Lucy Sullivan
Non-HLA Antibody Testing: Still a Research Tool or Ready for Prime Time?
Dr Eric Spierings
Molecular Matching: The Epitope Pathway to Equity in Transplantation
Prof Raja Rajalingam
Innovative Histocompatibility Strategies Enhance Equity and Efficiency in Kidney Allocation: Evidence from 10-Year Outcomes of 2,600 Transplants
Dr Anne Halpin
ABO histocompatibility: Tools for immune risk assessment
Dr Surakameth Mahasirimongkol
How Thailand’s PGx Strategy is Saving Lives at Scale
Dr Nicole Mifsud
The immunopeptidomic landscape in transplantation
Dr Katsushi Tokunaga
Diversity of Immune Multigene Families: Genomic Basis of Disease Associations
Thursday, 28th May 2026
Dr James Robinson
HLA Bioinformatics; Navigating increasing complexity and volume
Dr Kazutoyo Osoegawa
HLA Serotypes
Dr Nicholas Brown
Informatics tools for clinical HLA laboratory data
Dr Pierre-Antoine Gourraud
From HLA to Biomedical Data warehouse: an unexpected journey in data-driven medicine