Spatiotemporal readiness is key to preparing regenerative medicine for the clinic

As regenerative medicine products scale up, researchers turn their attention beyond the ongoing technical challenges of collecting, preserving and delivering gene- and cell-based products to manufacturing and business operations, including process control, automation, supply chain and logistics, and the viability of business model alternatives. Successful translation of regenerative medicine projects to the clinic requires attention to the complex interaction of spatial and timing issues from manufacturing to clinical use. The authors of this commentary suggest that analysis of the spatial and temporal aspects of infrastructure is a useful way to take a more integrated view across all manufacturing phases, participants and components of regenerative medicine when assessing institutional readiness.