Tribute to one of the Pioneers of Organ Transplant Medical Science, Alan Ting, Ph.D. (1943 - 2017)

"Alan was an outstanding scientist and even more important an outstanding human being! His love for his wife was an inspiration for all of us who encountered them as a couple."
~ Allen Calvin, Ph.D., President Emeritus, Palo Alto University

Alan Ting, an Australian, was born in Sydney and after schooling he undertook an Honors degree in Zoology, graduating BSc Hons. In 1967, Dr. Peter Morris returned from the USA to Melbourne University, Australia, to the Department of Surgery to join the new renal transplant program with the aim of establishing tissue typing and transplant immunology laboratories. Alan Ting joined Dr. Morris as his first PhD student and earned his Doctorate Degree in 1972.

He went to UCLA to do a postdoc with Dr. Paul Terasaki from 1973-75. Meanwhile Dr. Morris had moved to Oxford University, England in 1974 as Nuffield Professor of Surgery with the aim of establishing a transplant program as well as a tissue typing and transplant immunology laboratory. Alan Ting joined Dr. Morris at Oxford University in 1975 and spent the next 15 years in Oxford in what was to prove an incredibly productive time, reflected by his 87 publications in that period. These ranged from unravelling the importance of the cross match to HLA studies in several diseases. His most important contributions were the recognition that allegedly highly sensitized patients awaiting transplantation often had autolymphocytoxins which allowed many such patients, who had been excluded from transplantation because of a positive cross match, to be transplanted successfully, and the demonstration that matching for the newly described HLA-DR was more important than matching for HLA-A, B.

With Alan's professional career going from strength-to-strength, it was in the late 1980's that he met the love of his life. Helena became Alan's wife and the couple settled in California.

Alan became the Director of the Histocompatibility Laboratory at the Californian Pacific Medical Center, and in testament to his outstanding achievements, Margaret Vinson, colleague at the Histocompatibility Laboratory commented:

"In that time Alan was our Laboratory Director, he was like a wizard with a magic wand, gently prodding us to do our best whilst working hard and having fun. In my working life, Alan was the most important mentor and positive influence. Above all, he was a great friend."

In 1994, Alan took up a position at Stanford University as Associate Professor of Pathology and Co-Director of the Histocompatibility Laboratory, but was to move again in 2000 to Richmond, Virginia as Assistant Director and Director of Research at the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). His last publication in 2004 just before he retired was entitled "Human leukocyte antigen in the allocation of kidneys from cadaveric donors in the United States", an appropriate finale to a career in Histocompatibility. 

In 2005, after a fruitful career, he retired and he and Helena returned to California, where he became a volunteer photographer, a gifted mentor and a generous donor to Palo Alto University, continuing his commitment to those in need.

"He will be sadly missed by so many in the field in many parts of the world, and especially me as he was a former close colleague and a great friend."
~ Sir Peter J Morris AC, FRS, FRCS, Past President, RCSEng

For further information please contact:
Helena Ting Ed.D., VP of Community Development
Palo Alto University
650-520-3451
[email protected]

SOURCE Palo Alto University

Related Links

https://www.paloaltou.edu