Integra LifeSciences (Nasdaq:IART) announced today that its former founder, chair and CEO, Richard Caruso, passed away.
Caruso founded Princeton, New Jersey-based Integra in 1989 with the aim of enabling the human body to regenerate its own damaged or diseased tissue.
According to a news release, Caruso paved the way for what was then a new discipline in regenerative medicine. Integra said that, under his leadership, it became the first company to develop and bring to market a tissue regeneration product with the Integra dermal regeneration template receiving FDA approval in 1996 as a skin replacement system with a claim for regeneration of dermal tissue for the treatment of life-threatening burns and repair of scar contractures.
The company would go on to develop the DuraGen dural graft matrix for repairing the dura mater after cranial and spine surgery, as well as the NeuraGen nerve guide for creating a conduit for axonal growth across a severed nerve.
Caruso served as chair of Integra from 1992 until 2011, while also holding the corner office at the company from 1992 to 1997. He also served on the Board of Susquehanna University and the Baum School of Art and was the founder and director of The Uncommon Individual Foundation, a non-profit foundation that encourages individuals to form and follow their dreams of personal success and become the entrepreneurs of their personal lives.
“Dr. Richard Caruso made an impact on not only the medical technology industry, but more importantly, on the countless lives around the world who have benefited from the products and technologies that Integra LifeSciences has today,” Integra chair of the board Stuart Essig said in the news release. “His vision, transformative ideas and entrepreneurial spirit have revolutionized the way surgeons treat their patients in the field of regenerative medicine.”