ASEATTA is The Australasian and South East Asian Tissue Typing Association Incorporated.

It has members in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Thailand, India, Singapore, Mongolia, Malaysia, The Phillipines, Sth Africa, Indonesia, Japan and the USA.

ASEATTA history is full of interest and misadventures and is a constantly developing work. Comments, corrections, additions and photos from members are welcome.

Below is a brief history of ASEATTA for the long version please click here.

Brief History of ASEATTA by Dr Trevor Doran

The history of ASEATTA can best be described by detailing our Annual Scientific meetings.

Up to 1996, 21 Scientific meetings have been held. These were in New Zealand (twice), Hong Kong and Thailand (twice) as well as the Australian cities of Melbourne (6 times), Sydney (4 times and their turn in '97), Perth (3 times, including the first Scientific meeting in 1976) Adelaide (twice) and Canberra.

Neither the scientific nor the social achievements of these meetings should be underestimated.

The original Australasian Tissue Typing Association (ATTA) blossomed from the attempts of early Tissue Typers to use the camaraderie that had bloomed between laboratories to establish standards for techniques and to smooth the pathways for information flow.

While there had been earlier get-togethers, the actual birth of ATTA was in 1975 and can be traced to a little conference room near the Tissue Typing lab at the Sydney BTS. It was here that a number of dedicated enthusiasts laboured over the aims and future directions of this fledgling group.

Although a constitution was not to follow for many years, 1976 saw the first of the Scientific meetings of the ATTA - in Perth, Western Australia.
These meetings, which have been supported by the presence of a large number of guest speakers from non-ASEATTA countries, have given us incredible science as well as countless adventures. We have met in a Crypt under Wesley College in Sydney, had Quokkas underfoot on Rottnest Island and battled fire alarms and gale force winds in Wellington, Newe Zealand.

We have worked through breakfasts, dealt with coloured rabbits feet and suffered an America's Cup loss during our meetings.
We have eaten at beautiful restaurants with wonderful views of Melbourne and of Sydney Harbour and we've also eaten at the Gundaroo Pub.
We have had Akinori Kimura give us a summary of his pre-11th WS data that was so thorough that we wondered whether the workshop was necessary.
We visited Hong Kong at the time of the Tienenman Square incident in Beijing.
We have seen the beauty of the Rose Garden, representing traditional Thailand.
We have seen the modern New Delhi, rising from the struggling Old Delhi.
We know Rottnest Island like the backs of our hands, after a number of memorable visits.
We have experienced the vastness of our scientific neighbourhood, with meetings in New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Hong Kong  and India.
We have made friends with fellow ASEATTA members representing 12 different countries.
We have even heard a New Zealander re-write Hamlet! Yes, it has been copied by ASHI since, but The Tissue Typing Soliloquy (have a look- click here!) was first presented at ASEATTA.

Most importantly, we have come to realise how much wealth our region has in the rich scientific content of our annual meetings and the value of our collaborations.