PART 1 (1975 to 1980)

The history of ASEATTA (or ATTA, as it was originally known) can best be described by detailing the events which we most remember of our Annual Scientific meetings.

These meetings have been held in most of the Australian states as well as in New Zealand, Hong Kong and Thailand and neither the scientific nor the social achievements of them should be underestimated.

The beginnings of the original Australasian Tissue Typing Association (ATTA) can be found in the attempts of early Tissue Typers to formalise the camaraderie that had bloomed between laboratories. Also, the need to establish standards for techniques and to smooth the pathways for information flow, made such an organisation inevitable.

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 the formalisation of a constitution was not to follow for many years, 1976 saw the first of the Scientific meetings of the ATTA. This was, for many, the first of many visits to Perth and the meeting, in retrospect, produced many significant results, including the identification of the locus which was to become HLA-DQ. In fact, a debt of gratitude is owed to Roger Dawkins, John Wetherall and their teams for organising this meeting and thereby setting the standard for all future organisers to follow.

 An elite group of current  ASEATTA stalwarts were participants in that inaugural ATTA scientific meeting. They are Greg Bennett (Adelaide), Frank Christiansen (Perth), John Dagger (Wellington), Roger Dawkins (Perth), Trevor Doran (Sydney), Brian Hawkins (Hong Kong now, but Perth then), Malcolm Simons (Melbourne), Brian Tait (Melbourne) and Campbell Witt (Perth). This meeting also had distinguished visitors such as Erik Thorsby (Norway -home of Dynabeads) and Peter Morris (England - home of Peter Morris).

Subsequent meetings have provided an excellent opportunity for members to get together in order to drive the regional quality upwards.
After a busy 1977 meeting in Melbourne, focusing on the Oxford Workshop and Class II serology methods,1978 saw the 3rd ATTA meeting being held at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. The meeting was organised by Brian Tait and Tony D'Apice. Three overseas guests were present - Walter and Julia Bodmer and Paul Terasaki.

After the Oxford workshop the main focus of attention was class II serology. Regional sera were collected and screened by the various Australasian laboratories in preparation for the meeting. The data was analysed using a cluster analysis approach and several new specificities were described at the meeting which in retrospect turned out to be DQ.

In 1979 the meeting was hosted organised by Helen Bashir and Trevor Doran in the Sydney BTS. The evolution of quality Class II regional typing was a major focus and the conference room was abuzz with reports of new splits.

In 1980 Wellington hosted the first ATTA meeting outside of Australia. The conference was held at the Shaw Saville hotel/motel Conference Centre in the Wellington suburb of Kilbirnie, was organised by John Dagger and Ray Fong and we certainly began to understand why Wellington is called 'The Windy City" - even the radio station called itself "RADIO WINDY"!

The meeting proved to be a great success with many Ausies willing to fly across the Tasman to attend the meeting. Everyone was then transfered to the conference centre to join the New Zealand registrants and the other guests. Judith Hay and Ann Sheldon were the only ones to mix business with pleasure. They were wise enough to take advantage of the cheap air fares by staying on for 7 nights in New Zealand, which is something the New Zealanders always did when they attended conferences in Australia.

The social side was enjoyed by all, with food and drinks being provided before the conference. The sightseeing car tour of Wellington was a highlight - even if it was a bit overcrowded. There were even a few overseas guests. Professor E. Albert, who went bush for a week following his arrival-(but finally turned up at the social gathering the night before the conference) and Allan Ting were guest speakers from Munich and Oxford.

Bill Cannady made his first appearance at an ATTA meeting. At the time he was working for Pel-Freeze and spoke on his then favourite subject - complement. The meeting had several highlights, with many informative and interesting scientific presentations. Most of the discussion at the meeting however was devoted to the upcoming 2nd AOHWC meeting being held in Melbourne in 1981.
Although the conference went very well it wasn't entirely hassle free. The fire alarm went off which lead to the conference having to be re-located, right into the face of a Wellington southerly! Interestingly, a suite was made available to the Treasurer and to the secretary free of charge - It may have been a peace offering??. By the end of the three days the organising committee tells us they were exhausted but pleased with the whole thing.

PART 2 (1981 to 1986)

1981 saw Melbourne host another meeting. This meeting was not an ATTA/ASEATTA meeting, as it was the 2nd Asian and Oceania Workshop. It was held at Stonnington, a beautiful old residence with spacious gardens which had been converted into a Teachers' College. Many overseas visitors attended the meeting, including a large number of Japanese and representatives from laboratories in Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines and the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). The PRC was represented by Professor Chen Ren Bao (Shanghai), Dr Ye (Beijing) and DR Yu (Shanghai).

It is thought that this was the first HLA meeting that these PRC scientists had attended outside their own country and certainly the first time PRC scientists had attended an ATTA/ASEATTA supported meeting. There were several components to this meeting including serology, population studies and disease studies. Bernard Amos attended the meeting as an invited guest and presented the Charles Warman guest Lecture. Charles Warman was an engineer, with a keen interest in the development of many aspects of science. He made an extremely generous financial contribution which permitted many of the activities carried out as part of the 3rd AOHS over a two year period.

The sixth ATTA meeting was held in Adelaide in 1982 at the Red Cross BTS. The meeting was organised by Judith Hay, Greg Bennett and Anne Sheldon and focused on the discussion of the critical analysis of some sixty odd families which had been typed for HLA A,B,C and DR in the latter part of 1982 by the ATTA laboratories and a number of collaborating Asia-Oceania Workshop laboratories. Sera used in the study were the regional AR12 and 13 trays for HLA A,B,C typing and a special DR tray formulated for the study.

Reports on different aspects of the analysis were presented including definition of antigens, new antigens and "splits", segregation and recombination and identification of families of special interest. Another important feature of the Adelaide meeting was the evaluation of the Regional Reference Trays and of quality control and standardisation. Gm and C4 allotyping were beginning to be recognised as important in both disease and immunogenetic studies. This saw a reference laboratory for C4 established in Perth and testing for these markers became part of the ATTA Standardisation Program.

Reports on developments in technology and knowledge in these two areas were presented to the meeting. ATTA received direct feedback on the relevance of Tissue Typing in Renal Transplantation and the value of National Collaboration from clinical colleagues -this was a first for ATTA. To this end, reports were received from Dr. Alex Disney (SA ANZDATA Registry) and Dr. Bruce Hall (NSW - RPA Hospital)

It was in 1983 that it was suggested that ATTA be expanded to include Asia and Oceania. With communication and collaboration increasing between ATTA and Tissue Typing Laboratories in these areas it seemed natural to include them, thus ASEATTA was formed. The idea was to strengthen the contributions made to the field both locally and internationally. Countries that were added in changing ATTA to ASEATTA include India, Thailand, Singapore, The Philippines, Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea.

It was back to Sydney for the 1983 meeting - this time organised by Helen Bashir, Trevor Doran and Andrew Geczy. This time we were put up at the Womens College at Sydney University where full board was only $28! Scientifically, the meeting was concerned with MHC evolution and MHC restriction ( Chris Parish, Ian McKenzie, Bill Boyle, John Matthews). Also Linda Upfold, John Sullivan and Joseph Trapani provided a lively session on B27 in Ankylosing Spondylitis, while much time was spent on the regional definition of all antigens. Social activity was pretty varied, with people going in all directions, however we did manage to get together for a great Dinner at the Waterfront Restaurant at The Rocks.

Rottnest Lodge, with Quokkas underfeet, provided the home for Roger's 1984 Perth conference. This was the type of meeting you either love or hate. No doubt - Rottnest is a beautiful place (nothing like the "rat nest" after which it was named by the Dutch - Anyway, if they confused Quokkas with rats, they must have BIG rats!). But working during breakfast may have been pushing things a little.

This didn't worry Ekkehard Albert (Munich) or Bo Dupont (New York) and while the water was pretty cold it was a sure bet that you would find them out there - probably jumping onto other person's sailboard! Scientifically, this was a strategic meeting in devising regional plans for the 3AOH and 10th International Workshop. However, it may be remembered for Greg Bennett and Co getting stranded at the wrong end of the island with a broken bicycle at the time the boat was due to return to Perth. Or for the plane strike which kept people in Perth for up to a week after the conference!

The meeting in 1985 was hosted again by Brian Tait in Melbourne. The meeting was held at Kings Village Wantirna, at the foot of the Dandenong Ranges, which was a beautiful location. There were several invited guests - Henry Erlich, Jack Silver and Sanna Goyaert, the topics they discussed were now showing a much more DNA flavour.

Henry Erlich spoke for the first time at an ASEATTA meeting about PCR and its potential application in HLA Typing. The main topic of the meeting was the application of molecular biological techniques to the study of MHC polymorphism. The meeting was a forerunner to the 10th International Workshop which focused on the use of RFLP in HLA typing.

In 1986, Sydney University was again the venue. However, this time we were led into the crypt below Wesley College! The meeting was organised by Margo Honeyman and Trevor Doran and had as it's main core a detailed anthropology component. Judith Hay and Joe Williamson both presented Australian aboriginal data, while Fran Ward (USA) presented Sudanese and the Thai labs presented Thai and Thai/Chinese. Also Maori data and a detailed analysis of the B22 complex was presented by Wellington, Dunedin and Auckland.The meeting was interspersed with hundreds of coloured rabbits feet courtesy of Bill Cannardy - much to the disgust of some, while others really liked them - No accounting for taste! Dinner was a high flying affair at the revolving Summit Restaurant on top of Australia Square Tower

PART 3 (1987 to 1990)

"Science At Sea" was the title of the 1987 meeting, put on by Roger Dawkins, Guy Grimsley, Frank Christianson and crews. This meeting was aimed at coinciding with the (3 minutes silence please) America's Cup defence and this aspect certainly attracted the "boaties". Notably, Jan van Rood (much known for the salt water in his veins) was there and he even left the waterside long enough to talk on the "TCA" locus and genetic linkage of GVHD to HLA.

Also, the A1-B8-DR3 supratype was intimately explored for it's role in autoimmune disease, while Dominique Charron (France) spoke on hybrid molecules and TNF. Also Erik Thorsby (Oslo) spoke on the role of the HLA molecules in the immune response and demonstrated his (then fledgling) dynabeads.

The 1988 ASEATTA Scientific Meeting was hosted by Sue Searjeantson in Canberra, immediately following the XII International Congress of the Transplantation Society in Sydney. This timing was, of course, coincidental and had nothing to do with recruiting international speakers for $300 instead of $3000 - or so they tell us? The conference theme was "HLA-DP Genes and Antigens". In 1988 it was timely to explore the genetics and function of HLA-DP and the forum therefor attracted many guests and the major international experts in this area.

The meeting was a great success. Professor Kimiyoshi Tsuji (Tokai University) gave the opening address on "Structure and Function of HLA-DP Antigens in vitro and in vivo". The audience was absolutely stunned by the unsuspected advances made by Tsuji's laboratory. There were many other excitable (or exciting? - no, maybe it was right the first time) and entertaining contributors to the meeting, such as Fritz Bach (Minnesota), Erna Möller (Karolinska Institute), Rene Duquesony (Pittsburgh), David Eckels (Wisconsin), Hilliard Festenstein (London), Nancy Reinsmoen (Minnesota), Marilyn Pollock (Houston), Afzal Nikaein (Baylor), Adriana Zeevi (Pittsburgh) and Els Goulmy (Leiden).

The local ASEATTA speakers were not to be out done and showed that Australians were also making original and substantial contributions to HLA-DP at the cellular (Margo Honeyman and Caroline Farrell), serological (Brian Tait, Trevor Doran) and molecular (Simon Easteal) level, while free communications were presented by most ASEATTA labs.

The social event for the meeting was a memorable (for some) evening at the Gundaroo Pub. There was plenty of grog for the blokes and plonk for the sheilas. The speciality of the house was the kangaroo tail soup and damper, the entertainment was provided by a very versatile bush band who insisted on playing American Country music.

The 1989 ASEATTA meeting, which was the result of the efforts of Brian Hawkins, was subtitled "Which Genes are Important?" and was held at the Lee Gardens Hotel, Hong Kong. This was the first time an ASEATTA meeting was held outside of Australasia.

The meeting came at a poignant time in Hong Kong, just three months after the Tianamen Square incident in Beijing which we all saw on television but which our neighbours insisted was a figment of our imagination.

We were pleased to welcome our long-standing ASEATTA friends Ekkehard Albert and Erik Thorsby along with Hans Grosse-Wilde from Essen, Oyvind Jensen from Oslo, and Dr Sekiguchi from Saitama who gave an update on preparations for the Workshop. Two and a half days were occupied by symposia and free communications, interspersed with business meetings and guest lectures by Erik and Ekkehard. Half a day was spent away from the hotel at a wet workshop at the Queen Mary Hospital on" Magnetic Beads in the HLA lab - present and future." presented by Oyvind Jensen from Dynal, with help from Brian Tait and Trevor Doran. The conference banquet on the first night took the form of a junk trip on Hong Kong Harbour followed by a traditional meal and a noodle making demonstration. Honoured ASEATTA guests were invited to attack the beggar's chicken with a wooden mallet to break open the mud shell in which it was cooked. Less formal culinary excursions took delegates to a seafood restaurant on Lamma Island and a roast goose restaurant in the New Territories.

And then to the Auckland meeting of ASEATTA, organised by Graeme Woodfield and Maurice Roberts, which was held on the 29th September until the 1st October 1990. Guests included Professor Ben Bradley, Professor Bernard Amos, Dr. Akinori Kimura and Dr. J. Marilyn McQueen. Other invited speakers included James Decker, Professor Len Henderson, Dr. Nerinda Mehra and Professor Sue Serjeanston. The meeting was held in the Marion Davis Post Graduate Centre in the grounds of Auckland Hospital. All the old faithfuls were there and a wide range of topics were discussed. Brian Tait gave a fascinating talk on an overview of the HLA system, followed by a talk from Bernard Amos on the immuno-biology of HLA. There were two major sessions on renal transplants and bone marrow transplantation, followed by an update by Dr Kimura, of the then forthcoming, Yokohama Histocompatibilty meeting.

Kimura also gave a summary of his DNA results and he was so impressive that we were wondering whether the 11th Workshop was even necessary! One of the most interesting sessions was on quality assurance, followed by a session on anthropology and the HLA system led by Sue Serjeanston and Kuldep Bhatia. Also, Polynesian data was presented by the Auckland group. Under the session, future directions, pre-eclampsia studies and recurrent abortion results were outlined and Len Harrison gave a good talk on the MHC and auto immunity. Overall it was a very enjoyable meeting both scientifically and socially. During the dinner we were entertained by a ventriloquist as well as some adapted Shakespeare performed by Graeme Woodfield (Click here for a treat!). Everyone got into some hot water on the Saturday Night at Waiwera pools - just as well it was a very cold night. One of the highlights of the meeting was the look on Ben Bradley's face when he faced the Maori challenge at the Museum!

PART 4 (1991 onwards)

Exotic Thailand and the Rose Garden, near Bangkok, was the venue for the 1991 ASEATTA meeting, presented by Tat (Desneyane Chandanayingyong). It would be hard for a meeting to be as inspiring as the beauty of the Rose Garden grounds themselves, or the fantastic open air banquet - complete with traditional dancers and lighting of the lanterns! But still we tried! Gao from Canberra, with his 2,600 11th Workshop HLA-DR/DQ haplotypes analysed by direct automated sequencing of PCR products, certainly did his share! After Gao, most of the pre-11th Workshop reports and discussions of non-MHC loci etc, while maybe losing a little gloss, still provided a most enjoyable scientific side to the annual opportunity of ASEATTA members to meet and to discuss "grass-roots" problems - as this is the real value of these meetings.
In 1992, there was no large scale ASEATTA meeting, because of the upcoming 4AOH Workshop and Conference in Perth. However, Rhonda Holdsworth and Brian Tait put together a great meeting at the Melbourne BTS. This meeting was all about giving Tissue Typers a chance to discuss techniques and to iron out problem areas. Principle areas included reports of the importance of the B Cell crossmatch in transplantation, 4AOH plans and plans for the future involving choices in DNA methodology.

1993 was again a brief meeting, put together by John Sullivan and the Sydney crew. The meeting was had a strong "Lab Bench" focus and was well received for its success in resolving many empirical issues.

"The MHC in Medicine" was the title of the 1994 meeting in Adelaide. With overseas guests, John Hansen (Seattle), Gerhard Opelz (Heidelberg), Ekkehard Albert (Munich), Dominique Charron (Paris) and Pojen Chen (California), the meeting tackled solid organ and bone marrow transplantation with a gusto. This meeting was also notable for being able to award 5 Young Investigator Bursuries and not to be forgotten for the dinner at the Middlebrook Winery!

Beautiful Bangkok again in 1995. This was a joint meeting of ASEATTA and the 5th AOH Workshop. This meeting was organised by Prof Pimol Chiewsilp and Prof Chen Ren Biao and covered MHC structure and function as well as infectious and autoimmune diseases and 12th WS progress.

1996 saw us return to our most visited city, Melbourne, under the guidance of Rhonda Holdsworth, Brian Tait, Louisa Ashdown and Linda Cantwell. We now found ourselves meeting at The Hilton on The Park - a far cry from "the Crypt"! We are moving up, and with a title of "MHC Molecular Medicine into the 21st Century", this meeting told us that ASAETTA is no longer a shy and retiring soul! As usual we were graced by the presence of overseas guests to complement our own local expert presenters. Visitors this time were Ekkehard Albert (Munich), Virginia Lepage (Paris), Alejandro Madrigal (London),  E Rozemuller (Netherlands), Derek Middleton (Belfast) and Hans Strauss (London). It also saw a new region joining the fold, represented by Batmunkh Munkhbat (Mongolia)

1997 and off to the Sydney meeting at The Australian Maritime Museum. Ahoy there, land lubbers! A top class meeting hosted by Trevor Doran, Andrew Geczy, Heather Dunckley and the Sydney crew. The standard of our meetings is certainly reaching new heights! And what a magical venue for the meeting. Excellent science in a very comfortable theatre and the welcome reception on the decks of a retired naval ship looking up to the city lights - just great! Guest speakers? Yes there were a few in Sydney. Hans Grosse-Wilde discussed soluble HLA, the immunobiology of Bone Marrow transplantation and made numerous new friends down under. Also from Germany, our most loved friend Ekkehard Albert visited to demonstrate a new program for the interpretaion of molecular data. We also had Alessandr Sette discussing HLA supermotifs and the renowned Peter Parham with his depth of knowledge on HLA polymorphisms. Australian keynote speakers were Marcus Vowels, Bernie Tuch, Simon Easteal and Xiaojiang Gao. The 1997 Sydney meeting was notable as being the first ASEATTA meeting attended by our new member region - Indonesia. They join our other new region - Mongolia - in a robust ASEATTA!

India and the historic Delhi was the venue for 1998! OK Narinder, we were booked, immunised and ready to go........and yes you did deliver! Good science and inspiring guest speakers coupled with a number of huge Indian banquets - all this and the sensual overload of Delhi itself!
As this was an AOH meeting as well as ASEATTA and with it being a satellite meeting of the International Immunology Congress, the guest speakers included some famous celebs that we may otherwise have missed. The guest speakers included Takehiko Sazazuki and Katsushi Tokunaga from Japan discussed HLA and disease as well as GvH and GvL. The Dutch connection started with Marcel Tilanus having us think about sequencing based typing and mutations, then Frans Claas discussed the importance of structural variations in HLA antigens in transplantation. We also heard from Eric Michelson, form the USA, on stem cells and Gerhard Opelz spoke on the CTS and the value of HLA. But the list continued, with Avrion Mitchison discussing MHC expression in disease, Ekkehard Albert (by now ASEATTA's undoubted best friend) setting the course towards routine sequencing for all HLA's as well as MIC A, and Anand Gautam highlighting the role of the invariant chain in autoimmunity. All this and a host of excellent and sometimes provocative presentations from our regional speakers - eg Jim McCluskey, Jeremy Chapman, Brian Tait, Andrew Geczy, made for a very successful meeting. Thankyou to Narinder Mehra and Uma Kanga for the well organised event.

1999 and we were back to Auckland, New Zealand. This is the second time that ASEATTA has gathered at the America's Cup yacht races and we hope that we didn't bring the bad luck that we gave the Perth Cup defence back in 1987! Kathy Figgins and Ian Dittmer were aided by the amiable Meg Crawford to produce a great time in the place the promised was "a great place to be." Guest International speakers were Ekkehard Albert (telling us that MICA polymorphism is huge), Joannis Mytilineos (presenting the CTS analysis), Paul Terasaki (returning to ASEATTA after many years to ensure that we do not lose focus on the importance of HLA antibodies in transplantation) and Marcelo Fernandez-Vina (discussing the relationship between selective pressures and the diversity of HLA) . The important milestone event was the induction of Ekkehard as a LIFE MEMBER of ASEATTA. This was something that many ASEATTA members had suggested and was a most popular decision.

Perth was the venue for ASEATTA 2000. This meeting was organised by Frank Christiansen and Campbell Witt, who were excellently supported by their teams, headed by Neill Hodgen and Steve Pummer as well as Lisa Boogerd. Scientifically, the meeting was a huge success and highlighted the strength of the science in our region. The meeting was entitled "The MHC and Beyond: Immunogenetics in Clinical Medicine", reflecting the growth of our knowledge outwards from HLA itself. The venue was the Alexander Library, which, due to its theatre style seating, provided an ideal environment. Major topics included work on Stem cell transplantation, NK cells, cytokine genes, autoimmune disease, sensitisation and evolution and diversity.

The international flavour of our ASEATTA meetings was by now sufficiently provided by our member diversity itself. However, as always, this was supplemented with an array of guest "stars". these included Marius Giphart from Leiden, Effie Petersdorf from Seattle, Eric Thorsby from Oslo and Ken Walsh from Oxford. Also, Ekkehard Albert was a special guest to honour the life membership bestowed upon him in 1999.
Additional Keynote speakers Hidetoshi Inoko, Peter Bardy, Andrew Brooks, Richard Herrmann, Margo Honeyman (an "old" friend returning for a visit), Narinder Mehra, Patricia Price, Tony Scalzo and Campbell Witt were added to a host of presented papers to provide a great meeting. Visits to the Perth Mint and the Underwater World provided the social release and chance to interact that ASEATTA is so good at. Also, very successful Wet Workshops were presented by major sponsors DYNAL and by VISIBLE GENETICS. 

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2001 -  The Queensland Gold Coast and Surfers Paradise, hosted by the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Woolloongabba (in Brisbane).
2002 - Adelaide, South Australia
2003 - Meeting part of 7AOH, Japan
2004 - Sydney, NSW

And so to the future! ASEATTA obviously has a role to play in holding open the doors of communication between our laboratories. However, more importantly, it is our best means of standardisation. Although, we have taken onboard ASHI accreditation and started to develop the ACGT Accreditation system, , we should not let ASEATTA become (some would say "stay" ) a toothless tiger. The future of ASEATTA will be dependent on the degree of involvement that ASEATTA can earn in the Quality management of our laboratories and upon it's ability to provide annual meetings that can impart genuine scientific advancement.