The synthetic breakthrough reimagining wound healing
August 25, 2026 | Read time: 5 min
For decades, surgeons treating complex wounds relied on collagen matrices derived from animal or human tissue. These products were costly, difficult to handle and, in some of the most challenging cases, often fell short.
What if there was a better option—one engineered from the ground up to help the body heal?
That question sparked the creation of Restrata, an electrospun, 100% synthetic, fully resorbable matrix engineered to be structurally similar to a human extracellular matrix (ECM).
It all started with an observation in a St. Louis research lab.
A gap on the hospital shelf
As Dr. Matthew MacEwan pursued a medical degree and Ph.D. at Washington University School of Medicine, he kept seeing the same frustrating pattern in complex wound and reconstructive cases using traditional matrices.
"We used many different animal or human derived tissue matrices," MacEwan recalls. "And in many instances, they just wouldn't work. They wouldn't get the patient to the next stage of their care."
When MacEwan looked at the options available at the hospital, he noticed something striking. Every single one came from some form of harvested tissue.
“I realized that there were no engineered solutions in this space," he says.
When cells met a synthetic scaffold
While working on his thesis, MacEwan had joined a group studying how cells interact with synthetic materials much smaller than themselves. There, the team encountered a class of material that would change everything: synthetic electrospunr fibers.
"They were these ultra small synthetic polymeric fibers that were hundreds of times smaller than individual cells," MacEwan explains. "And what we found very quickly was that for some reason, cells loved to grow on these fibers, which is unusual for a synthetic material."
No matter what kind of cell the team cultured, the result was the same. Cells would attach, grab onto, spread across the material and begin to proliferate. The sub-cellular scale closely mimicked the size and architecture of human ECM, our own natural environment for healing.
"A cell will attach onto the material and think hey, this is a great spot to setup shop, time to proliferate and create new tissue," says Tamás Kovács, one of Acera Surgical's earliest employees.
Unlike biologic materials, the synthetic scaffold resisted enzymatic degradation, allowing it to maintain its structure long enough to support new tissue formation, even in difficult wound environments.
From an idea to a company
MacEwan turned the idea into a business plan that won Washington University's Olin Cup entrepreneurship competition.
The concept attracted healthcare executive Agnes Rey-Giraud, who helped launch Acera Surgical. She supplied the seed funding and soon assembled a small team of trusted contacts to work alongside MacEwan, including Kovács and Julie Cochran. Together, these four built everything from day-to-day finance and operations to R&D, quality, regulatory, manufacturing and commercial strategy.
Their first FDA-cleared product, Cerafix®, was designed as a neurosurgical material for use in dura repair utilizing the same electrospun platform.
A breakthrough in wound healing
With an FDA cleared material in hand, the team asked a simple question: where else could this technology help? Rather than starting a new three to four year development cycle, they looked for other tissues in the body that might benefit from the same type of regenerative scaffold.
Wound repair bubbled to the top. It had a clear regulatory path, a large unmet clinical need and an animal model that could quickly validate efficacy.
Those results arrived faster than anyone expected. "I've never seen anything heal a wound or granulate tissue this quickly," one research director reportedly told the team during early feasibility work.
In a porcine wound healing model, wounds treated with Restrata were 100% covered with granulation tissue after 15 days, compared to 20-50% coverage of wounds treated with another market leader.1
MacEwan also remembers the first patient treated with Restrata—a security guard living with a chronic surgical wound that had kept him from activities with his family.
After treatment, the wound healed.
"He took his kids to Disneyland and went swimming in the ocean with them for the first time," MacEwan says.
Winning over the skeptics
Introducing a fully synthetic product into a market dominated by biologic and amniotic materials meant facing plenty of doubt.
"So many clinicians looked at us like we were crazy," MacEwan says. "Why would we put a synthetic material into a wound when they believed you needed biologic materials and growth factors?"
The science and outcomes changed minds. One influential leader agreed to try Restrata on roughly 70 of his patients and reported better results than he'd achieved with his existing products.2 That pattern repeated itself again and again.
Feedback from physicians also shaped how the product evolved. When clinicians started cutting the material into confetti-like pieces to pack into deeper wounds, the team developed Restrata MiniMatrix, a micronized, dispersible form.
The elegance of Restrata lies in its simplicity. The scaffold is made from two biodegradable polymers that have been used in medicine for decades, most notably in dissolvable sutures, but never as a scaffold that mimicked ECM. As the material contacts the body's fluids, it degrades via hydrolysis into byproducts the body naturally metabolizes.
Smaller fibers break down first, opening the scaffold's porosity and creating room for new blood vessels and tissue to move in.
"By the end of four weeks, the scaffold is gone, while the new native tissue remains," Kovács says.
A natural fit for Solventum
In December 2025, Solventum completed its acquisition of Acera Surgical, expanding its wound care portfolio into synthetic tissue matrices for acute care settings.
"We've always felt that this technology deserved to become the standard of care," Kovács says. "With the additional resources and reach that Solventum brings to the table, the mountain got a lot smaller and a lot less steep."
The team sees a wide road ahead. Beyond wound care, the electrospun platform could be engineered to mimic other tissues in the body. There's also ongoing work to integrate the matrix more closely with negative pressure wound therapy systems (NPWT) of which Solventum is a market leader.
For a team that spent more than a decade grinding through highs and lows, the mission has stayed constant. As Kovács puts it, patient stories from the field reinforce why they keep going.
"They would have healing outcomes that no one anticipated," he says. "It reminds you of why you're doing what you're doing."
Learn more
Discover how Solventum continues to push the boundaries of advanced wound care. Explore the Restrata platform and see how engineered soft tissue solutions are helping clinicians solve some of their most difficult challenges.
Restrata® has not been studied in wounds that extend into the tendon, muscle, joint capsule or bone. Please refer to the Instructions for Use for a full list of indications, contraindications, precautions and warnings.
1. MacEwan MR, MacEwan S, Wright AP, Kovács TR, Batts J, Zhang L. Comparison of a Fully Synthetic Electrospun Matrix to a Bi-Layered Xenograft in Healing Full Thick-ness Cutaneous Wounds in a Porcine Model. Cureus. 2017;9(8):e1614. Published 2017 Aug 27. doi:10.7799/cureus.1614.
2. Regulski MJ, MacEwan MR. Implantable Nanomedical Scaffold Facilitates Healing of Chronic Lower Extremity Wounds. Wounds. 2018;30(8): E77-E80
Frequently asked questions
What is Restrata?
Restrata is the first electrospun, 100% synthetic, fully resorbable matrix engineered to be structurally similar to human extracellular matrix. It supports soft tissue healing and reinforcement, and it fully resorbs via hydrolysis over approximately four weeks.
How is Restrata different from biologic wound care products?
Tissue matrices are commonly harvested from animal or human sources and are made of collagen. Restrata is fully engineered and synthetic, so it's free of human or animal tissue components and requires no special storage or handling. It also resists enzymatic degradation, allowing it to hold its structure long enough to support new tissue formation.
What is electrospinning?
Electrospinning is a manufacturing process that produces ultra-small polymeric fibers with controllable chemistry, structure and architecture. These sub-cellular fibers approximate the size and architecture of collagen and elastin in human tissue, which helps cells attach, grow and form new tissue.
What form factors does Restrata come in?
Restrata is available as a solid sheet, a pre-meshed version that expands up to twice its initial coverage area and a micronized dispersible form called Restrata MiniMatrix. In total, the platform offers three form factors and 19 sizes.
Can Restrata be used with negative pressure wound therapy?
Yes. All Restrata form factors are compatible with negative pressure wound therapy. Surgeons often use it alongside systems like V.A.C.® Therapy, where the matrix provides a scaffold for cells to migrate into while the therapy helps prepare the wound for closure.
Is Restrata now part of Solventum?
Yes. Solventum completed its acquisition of Acera Surgical, the company that developed Restrata, in December 2025, adding the technology to its advanced wound care portfolio.
Keep exploring
Seeing the difference we can make reminds us to keep listening, keep caring, keep innovating and keep doing what we do best: We never stop solving for you.
