Dr. C Wayne McIlwraith is a founding scientific member of OrthoXcell. He is a New Zealander who has had most of his career in the United States and is a distinguished orthopedic researcher, including the field of regenerative medicine, and world renowned equine orthopedic surgeon. Dr. McIlwraith was the founding Director of the Orthopaedic Research Center (ORC) at Colorado State University (1994-2020), which has been a leader in the field of osteoarthritis and articular cartilage injury, particularly the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) for osteoarthritis, meniscal tearing, and cartilage defect repair in equine athletes. The ORC is also renowned for testing and validating the effectiveness of other regenerative therapies, as well as surgical technologies including intra-articular therapies, cartilage resurfacing, tissue engineering and gene therapies for osteoarthritis, many of which have been or are translatable to human joint disease. Recognition of his accomplishments led to the funding of the C. Wayne McIlwraith Translational Medicine Institute at Colorado State University, increasing the amount of translatable research in regenerative medicine to humans. He is noted for significant achievements in the field of regenerative therapies and contributions on understanding of joint pathology and repair, the development and validation of equine models of joint diseases, surgical technologies, intra-articular therapies, cartilage resurfacing, tissue engineering and gene therapies for osteoarthritis many of which have been or are translatable to human joint disease. He pioneered many of the techniques in equine arthroscopic surgery including writing the textbook ‘Diagnostic and Surgical Arthroscopy in the Horse’ (four editions). He also co-authored the book Joint Disease in the Horse (2 editions) which is also the definitive text on diagnosis and treatment of joint problems in the horse. From 1979 until 2020, he was a faculty member at CSU where he was the University Distinguished Professor in Orthopedics, held the Barbara Cox Anthony Chair in Orthopaedic Research in addition to being the founding Director of the ORC. His leadership in translational orthopedic research led to him receiving the Marshall R. Urist, MD Award for excellence in tissue regeneration research from the Orthopaedic Research Society in 2014 for these contributions as well as raising many generations of basic and clinical researchers in the field of orthopedics; he has also received honorary doctorates from the University of Vienna, Massey University, New Zealand , Purdue University, University of Turin, and University of London. He has received multiple awards in addition to the Marshall Urist Award including the Founders Award and Legends Award from American College of Veterinary Surgeons (ACVS) induction into the International Equine Research Hall of Fame, the John Hickman Award in Orthopaedics from the British Equine Veterinary Association, the AAEP Research Award, the AVMA Lifetime Excellence in Research Award, the Markowitz Award from the Academy of Surgical Research, was made an Honorary Fellow of ICRS and an Honorary member of the Biologics Association and received the James Richardson Award from ICRS.