IBTS Laboratory Awarded Top Euro Accreditation

The National Tissue Typing Reference Laboratory located at the National Blood Centre in Dublin has been awarded laboratory accreditation by the European Federation for Immunogenetics (EFI) for histocompatibility and immunogenetics testing. The laboratory is only the second laboratory in the UK and Ireland to become accredited to EFI.

The laboratory received accreditation for its transfusion, disease susceptibility and both related and unrelated haematopoietic stem cell transplantation programmes.

"This is a fantastic achievement and the laboratory staff under the direction of Ciaran Dunne have worked extremely hard to attain it" said Dr Emer Lawlor, Deputy National Medical Director of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service.

Professor Shaun McCann, Head of the National Transplant Centre, St James's Hospital, Dublin said that this is a major accomplishment and provides an assurance to Irish patients requiring bone marrow transplantation that tissue typing which is essential in the selection of suitable bone marrow donors is to best international standards.