The MTF Story

Today, over 900,000 Americans receive tissue transplants each year. Musculoskeletal tissue replaces bone, tendons and ligaments lost to cancer, severe trauma, degenerative joint disease, arthritis and other conditions. Bone transplants can prevent amputation or multiple surgeries. Skin can make the difference between life and death for patients with severe burns. Heart valves replace those damaged by disease or deformity, and can offer the chance for an active life for many young patients. All of these life-giving and life saving procedures are made possible by the recovery and processing of human tissue.

No longer in the shadows of medical practice and organ transplantation, tissue banking and tissue transplantation are coming of age, and the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation, known as MTF, is in the forefront. MTF is a national consortium of academic medical institutions and organ and tissue recovery organizations across the country that recovers, processes and distributes donated human tissue for use in transplant surgery and research. MTF is headquartered in Edison, New Jersey, with additional facilities located in Pennsylvania, California, Minnesota and Germany, with recovery sites operated by MTF in Wisconsin, California, Illinois and New York. In its first 20 years, MTF and its recovery partners have recovered over 60,000 donors and provided over 3 million tissue grafts to patients in need.

A leader in the tissue banking community, MTF’s work touches the lives of many and, throughout its history, MTF has made a significant mark on the tissue banking world. Today MTF is the largest bank in the world and it provides the largest assortment of grafts available for transplantation – more than 650 different configurations of tissue including bone, skin and heart valves. Thanks to the generosity of donor families, MTF tissue is used to enhance the lives of patients in many ways – to help patients walk again, or recover from debilitating and painful spinal conditions, or to salvage limbs that might have been amputated due to orthopaedic cancers. The MTF organization is a model of creative and ethical management that brings together community and technology, and infuses sound business practices into the nonprofit mission. The MTF Board of Directors and staff are respectful stewards of the donated gift of life.

MTF Mission Statement

The Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation is a non-profit service organization dedicated to providing quality tissue through a commitment to excellence in education, research, recovery and care for recipients, donors and their families.

The Goals of the Foundation are:

• To establish the highest standards, consistent with current technology, for the recovery, testing, processing, storage and distribution of human allograft bone and tissue.
  
  
• To meet the needs of its members and of other institutions and organizations related to musculoskeletal allograft services including recovery and supply of bone and tissue.
  
  
• To advance the state of knowledge and practice of bone, tendon and ligament transplantation by providing financial support for research and education.
  
  
• To provide information and educational services to those engaged in the procurement and transplantation of musculoskeletal allograft material.