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Immunology and Protein Reference Unit

The Immunology Laboratory and Protein Reference Unit is a specialist service based at St George’s Hospital. It provides a comprehensive diagnostic service for immunology across the South West London Pathology network. The department hosts one of two Supraregional Assay Service Protein Reference Units in England UK and serves an extensive client base nationally and internationally, receiving samples from over 100 referring hospitals.

The Protein Reference Unit was established in 1971 under Professor J.R.Hobbs at Westminster Hospital, London. Professor Hobbs was an expert in the analysis of serum proteins, including immunoglobulins. After a brief relocation in 1992 to the Royal Surrey County Hospital at Guildford, the Protein Reference Unit settled at St George’s Hospital.

The Protein Reference Unit maintains its specialist interest and skills in protein analysis, particularly relating to immunoglobulins, including cryoglobulins and heavy chain disease investigations.

The wide and diverse UKAS-accredited repertoire of tests carried out by the Immunology Laboratory and Protein Reference Unit help to exclude, diagnose and monitor a variety of immunologically-based diseases including:

  • allergy
  • immune deficiency
  • hematological malignancy
  • autoimmune disease.

Expert advice is available from our Consultant Clinical Scientist team around appropriate investigation of clinical problems and the interpretation of results. This includes encouraging the most appropriate use of immunology tests and ensuring our service develops to meet changing clinical requirements.

Latest news

June 9, 2023

SWLP celebrates Biomedical Science Day 2023

This week, we marked the 7th annual Biomedical Science Day with stands at St George’s, St Helier and Croydon university hospitals highlighting the amazing and vital work that biomedical scientists do to support our patients.

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June 5, 2023

Rapid sepsis testing at Croydon Hospital

South West London Pathology (SWLP) has been working with bioMerieux to set up and interface Virtuo incubators at Croydon University Hospital (CUH) so that blood culture samples for sepsis can be incubated on site within the national target time of four hours.

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April 6, 2023

Immucor live at Croydon Hospital for blood transfusion

On Wednesday (4 April), the Croydon blood transfusion service went live with the Immucor system. Immucor is the leading provider of transfusion and transplantation diagnostic products in the UK. The new system is fully automated and has high accuracy.

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April 4, 2023

Hepatitis B and C screening in ED

In line with national guidance, Hepatitis B and C screening has now been introduced at Croydon Hospital. The purpose of the initiative is to identify cases of these diseases in patients who may not know they have them, so treatment can be offered early.

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