Riccardo Gottardi, PhD, University of Pennsylvania and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

In the continuum cycle of renewal, the meniscus, once just the silent guardian of the knee, finds new purpose as a scaffold for airway and tympanic membrane repair. This talk explores the transformation of decellularized meniscal fibrocartilage (MEND), repurposed to restore both voice and hearing through tissue engineering and structural regeneration.

The meniscus, with its unique biomechanical properties, offers a foundation for reimagining airway reconstruction. Pressed by the stringent requirements of translation in children, we have re-imagined the creation of scaffolds based on decellularized extracellular matrix. We have developed MEND as a hyaline cartilage substitute, combining it with cartilage-resident progenitor cells to create a minimally invasive and regenerative alternative to autologous grafts. I will be sharing the success of this approach providing a structural and biological framework that integrates and remodels over time in medium and large animal models of the pediatric airway, as well as our findings in using cartilage-resident progenitor cells as an exciting, minimally invasive cell source for repair.

In the auditory realm, MEND undergoes another transformation. Where tympanic membrane perforations fail to heal, MEND serves as an engineered fibrocartilage graft that mimics the native structure, providing superior integration compared to traditional cartilage grafts. Its microchannel network supports cell migration, allowing it to become part of the living tissue rather than remaining as a static implant.

In this talk, I will depict the strategies of biomaterial repurposing, where a discarded product from the food industry such as porcine meniscus, can find new life as an instrument of healing, restoring breath and sound in a new dimension of function.