Integra LifeSciences Celebrates 35 Years of Innovation

For more than three decades, Integra LifeSciences has positively impacted millions of patients around the world with medical technologies that restore lives. One of the company's most significant products is Integra® Dermal Regeneration Template (IDRT), formerly known as "artificial skin" developed by Professor Ioannis Yannas, faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Dr. John Burke, a researcher who was then the head of the Shriners Burn Institute.

Starting in the 1970s, they partnered to solve the complex problem of expediting wound closure in severe wound cases. Not only were the cases severe but they were in children, where burns covered large portions of their bodies. The esteemed academics were highly motivated to make a difference in this important patient population. After many failed attempts, the two reached a breakthrough - collagen tissue matrixes that would cause new skin to be formed rather than scar. This not only kept children alive but enabled the regrowth of skin and changed the model surgical approach moving forward. Learn more about the remarkable history in this New England Emmy-winning video from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Richard Caruso acquired this technology and founded Integra LifeSciences in 1989. Dr. Caruso had a vision to expand access to promising technology that enabled the human body to regenerate damaged or diseased tissues. Through Integra's investments and commercialization, the breakthrough of IDRT became the first FDA-approved product for the treatment of third-degree burns that is also proven to regenerate dermal tissue. Over the years, Integra has collaborated with notable institutions and funded in-house research, to create new treatment pathways to advance patient outcomes and set new standards of care.

For 35 years, the company has made an impact in multiple disciplines spanning regenerative tissue technologies such as IDRT, to treatments and care of brain tumors, hydrocephalus, and other neurological conditions. And this legacy of improving the most intricate medical procedures lives on today.