(upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Jacqui Tricarico, on location at the New Jersey Sharing Network 5K event here in New Providence, New Jersey.

So excited now to be joined by Joe Yaccarino, the President and CEO of MTF Biologics.

Great to have you with us, Joe.

- It's a pleasure, pleasure.

- So, for those who don't know, describe what MTF Biologics is.

- MTF is one of the largest tissue banks in the world.

We take donated gifts, gifts of tissue, and we transform those into transplants that are used throughout the world.

52 countries, we distribute to 52 countries.

And those tissues are used in surgery from any kinds of surgery.

There's sports medicine surgeries, there's cancer surgeries for young children with sarcomas, there's breast reconstruction after mastectomy.

And those are a way to bridge what we're doing here today, which is talking about donation, and making that into transplantation.

- 'Cause so often, part of this experience here is, yes, talking about organ donation but also tissue donations.

A lot of times, people hear more about organ donation because it is, yes, my friend, my neighbor actually is getting a new kidney in a couple weeks.

You know, you hear so much more about that, but the tissue donation is such a unique and important part of the equation here when we're talking about donation overall.

2 1/2 million people, is that right, every year?

- It's actually more than that.

- More than that, okay.

- Yes, and, so, each tissue donor can help over a hundred folks.

So when you're talking about organs, obviously, they're lifesaving, but we have lifesaving grafts as well for devastating burns, again, I mentioned cancers and amputations, so it really is a big part of what we do in the donation process.

- Spreading the awareness too because so many people that have gotten a knee replacement or these surgeries don't know that the tissue was donor tissue, correct?

How are you making sure that folks know about this too and spreading that message?

- It's about this, it's about talking about what it is that tissue means, and it's talking to our clinicians and our nurses and the folks that are in the OR and asking the question, "Did I get, I heard I might need an allograft.

Did I get," an allograft is a tissue that comes from another human.

So, when those questions are asked, and there's more awareness of tissue and how it helps and saves lives, that's critically important to us.

- Let's take it back a little bit because you've been working with the organization for 30 years now?

- Coming on 30 years.

- Coming on 30 years, I mean, that's incredible.

Talk about the journey with MTF Biologics because you started really on the engineer side and creating a lot of this technology that's just so crucial to making these types of transplantations work.

- So, I'm an engineer by training.

I was the first process engineer, and they asked me, "We need to make some spinal grafts."

And I said, "I think I can do that, I'm a reasonably intelligent engineer."

- "Give me a try."

(laughs) - And they said, "We wanna make it out of human tissue."

And I was like, "Wow, that's really happening," so that was the start, and we're a very innovative organization.

We have lots of R&D.

We have upwards of 50 to 60 R&D folks.

So we're constantly looking at advancing science, using this beautiful gift, this gift of donating in a tragic time, the most tragic time of anyone's life and saying, "How can we help others with that?"

And that's what I did, I was involved in lots of new tissue forms and new innovations and gained in responsibility, and eight years ago, they decided to make me the CEO.

It's an unbelievable honor, an amazing, amazing opportunity to lead.

We have 1,400 folks at MTF.

- Wow- And I wanna talk about when life and career very uniquely overlap for you.

- Yes.

- Talk about in 2022 when you found yourself needing tissue donation for a surgery.

- So, I started feeling tingling in my hands and my extremities, and I said, "What's going on?"

I started getting some neck pain.

I went to the doctor, got some MRIs, and they said, "You have spinal stenosis, you have some arthritis in your spine, and let's go on PT and see if it gets any better."

PT didn't help me at all.

I was getting impingement right on my spinal cord from my, and my surgeon said, "PT is not gonna help, you need an operation."

And I said, "Well, I know a lot about the spine, and I know about how those operations work, and are we gonna use MTF tissue?"

And he said, "Absolutely, we're gonna use MTF tissue."

So I have MTF tissue in my neck as we speak, and it came from a gift of donation.

A donor and their family decided to donate to me, and the rest is history.

The surgery was very successful.

I'm able to do all the things that I wanted to do and could do, and I'm so grateful.

The donor was from Nebraska.

I got a chance to fly out to Nebraska, talk to the team that was involved in that whole process.

I wrote a letter to the family.

That's what we really encourage folks to do is- - That's linking lives, it's something specific that MTF does, right?

- Exactly, with every tissue form, we create an opportunity to write a letter to the family.

It's a difficult letter to write.

You don't really know what to say.

They're in a grieving time, and I had multiple iterations of that letter and finally came up with one that I was happy with, and it really showed the most important word is gratitude, gratitude for what they did, what the donor meant to not just me but to the world of tissue donation and how we're healing and saving lives, and it's an amazing experience to be here for this long and know that now it's part of me.

It really helps me lead better, it helps me keep that passion going to lead the organization.

- And improving your quality of life.

- Back to business.

You're gonna see me, if you watch, I'm gonna be jumping off of that- - Well, that's what I said we have to talk about last before I let you go.

I wanna talk about The Bone Tones.

- Yes, yes.

- Tell us about The Bone Tones 'cause I love this concept.

- The Bone Tones started 28 years ago.

So we were only 70 people in the organization.

There was a talent show, there was a tap dancer and a magician, and I said, "I play the piano, and I sing."

And we had a gent who plays the bass.

And I said, "Let's play a couple tunes, a couple jazz tunes, and we need a name."

I said, "Well, let's come up with The Bone Tones."

Since then, we've been a duo, a trio, a quintet playing jazz.

We're playing today.

Now we're a pop band, a cover band, and we just love what we do.

We have an opportunity.

We just played for our company picnic.

So we played for first shift, and then we came back at 10 p.m.

and played for third shift.

Wherever we can play but also talk about who we are and- - Opens up the conversation.

- Exactly, exactly.

And I'll get on the microphone and say, "Do you know who The Bone Tones really are?"

And we talk about MTF, we talk about New Jersey Sharing Network, we talk about tissue donation and how it is the right thing to do.

It saves and heals lives, and please, please check that box, please be a donor and talk to your family about it.

- I love that, and we'll be listening to you later out there.

(laughs) - Please do.

- (laughs) We can't wait.

Thank you so much, Joe, for sharing your story- - My pleasure, thank you- - And telling us more about MTF Biologics, such an important organization doing incredible things every day, so thank you so much, Joe.

- Thank you for having me.

- We'll be right back after this.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by New Jersey Sharing Network.

Hackensack Meridian Health.

EJI, Excellence in Medicine Awards.

A New Jersey health foundation program.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

PSEG Foundation.

New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program.

South Jersey Industries.

The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

And by The North Ward Center.

Promotional support provided by Meadowlands Media.

And by Insider NJ.

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