ECMs for Tissue Repair in Clinical Medicine

Michael Hiles

Vice President for Research, Cook Biotech, Incorporated

Extracellular matrices harvested directly from tissues present a unique set of opportunities and challenges in the field of tissue repair. Through a wide variety of processing modalities, these materials have been used for decades as surgical biomaterials, but only of late have their complex compositions and architecture become more appreciated and capitalized upon. This presentation will attempt to convey the issues around harvesting intact ECMs, processing them for safety in clinical medicine, and studying them for in vivo and in vitro bioactivity. Only though a more thorough understanding of cellular interactions and mechanisms for repopulating these materials can we go about designing better and more useful "engineered" materials.