About AATB

The American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB) is a professional, non-profit, tax- exempt, scientific and educational organization.  It was founded in 1976 by a group of doctors and scientists who had started in 1949 the United States Navy Tissue Bank, our nation’s first tissue bank.  The AATB is dedicated to ensuring that human tissues intended for transplantation are safe and free of infectious disease, of uniform high quality, and available in quantities sufficient to meet national needs.  To fulfill that mission, since 1984, the AATB has published the only authoritative industry standards for tissue banks, the AATB’s Standards for Tissue Banking.  Beginning in 1986, the AATB initiated a mandatory Accreditation Program for its institutional members to ensure that tissue-banking activities are performed in a professional manner in compliance with these Standards.  In 1988, the Association began a certification program for individuals working in tissue banking.  The Association’s membership currently includes more than 1,100 individual members and 104 accredited tissue banks.  These banks recover tissue from more than 25,000 donors and distribute in excess of 1.5 million allografts for transplant annually.