Thidathip Wongsurawat presented at London Calling 2025 on “Nanopore-based HLA testing: a rising star driving real-world clinical implementation in pharmacogenomics.” Wongsurawat is from Mahidol university in Thailand. Wongsurawat has been using nanopore sequencing since 2017 and moved back to her hometown after doing research in the US. Now they work with a company and set up a project called Helix Star that is studying cancer, infectious diseases, and pharmacogenetics. Wongsurawat defined pharmacogenomics (PGx) as the study of how a person’s genome affects drug response. Drug allergies affect many globally and in Thailand. Different sets of allele may be “good for” some but not for others. The Helix Star project starts with sample collection, DNA extraction, and Nanopore-based HLA typing. They perform long-range PCR using HLA-B primers and prepare libraries with the Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) Rapid kits. Helix Star established a service agreement with N Health for three years. This was launched this year and uses Mk1D devices and computers with powerful GPUs. The bioinformatics is performed on Amazon Web Services. They have tested over 4,700 cases. Wongsurawat wants to expand beyond Thailand. I appreciate how this project has reached so many patients already!
