About
Serica

• Technology Overview
• History
• Strategy
• Leadership

History of Serica

Born in Boston’s academic community

Serica, formerly known as Tissue Regeneration, Inc. (TRI), was incorporated in 1998 to develop an alternative, superior solution for the time-encrusted method of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) repair.

In the early fall of his senior year at Tufts University, Serica founder and CEO, Greg Altman—two year football team captain, two year pre-season all-American—ruptured his ACL.

Learning that no then-available solution could completely restore his knee without debilitating side effects, Altman set out to solve the problem. Among his earliest supporters were the Tufts’ Biomedical Engineering Department and its chairman, David L. Kaplan, and the doctor who reconstructed his knee, John C. Richmond, chairman of the Department of Orthopaedics at the New England Baptist Hospital.

Altman’s doctoral work in biomedical engineering became the vision on which Serica was founded. Initially focused on the development of a tissue engineered ligament from adult stem cells, disappointing results of a weak collagen structure forced the resilient team to explore alternative strategies. Ultimately, Serica fulfilled its initial mission and created its solution for ACL repair by developing its core product technology, Seri™.

The early work of Serica earned grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, as well as two Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. In addition,

in 2004, Serica received the $2 million National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Advanced Technology Program Award to address the clinical need in primary rotator cuff tendon repair on the basis of Serica’s technical innovation and the broad potential of the Seri technology platform for significant benefits to our nation’s economy.

Today, Serica is venture capital backed and looking far beyond ACL repair alone, to rotator cuff repair, aesthetic and reconstructive plastic surgery, general surgery, and women’s health—to capitalize on the tremendous power and potential of Seri technology.