The last few decades have produced a large number of proof-of-concept studies in regenerative medicine.
However, the route to clinical adoption is fraught with technical and translational obstacles that frequently
consign promising academic solutions to the so-called “valley of death.” This review is intended to serve as a
blueprint for translational regenerative medicine: we suggest principles to help guide cell and material
selection, present key in vivo imaging modalities and argue that the host immune response should be
considered throughout therapeutic development. Finally, we suggest a pathway to navigate the often
complex regulatory and manufacturing landscape of translational regenerative medicine.