Mauro Alini graduated in Chemistry from the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) in 1983. Since then he has been involved in connective tissue research, starting form his Ph.D. research work, done at the Laboratory of Cellular Pathology in Locarno (Switzerland), which focused on the isolation and characterization of proteoglycans extracted from both normal human mammary gland and carcinomas thereof. In September 1988, he joined the Joint Diseases Laboratory (under Dr. A. R. Poole’s direction) at the Shriners Hospital in Montreal to work on quantitative and qualitative changes in extracellular matrix proteins (particularly proteoglycans and collagens) of the growth plate tissue before and at the time of cartilage matrix calcification during endochondral bone formation. In January 1995, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor at the Division of Orthopaedic Surgery of the McGill University (Chair Prof. M. Aebi) and head of the Biochemistry Unit of the Orthopaedic Research Laboratory, working to develop new biological approaches to treating intervertebral disc damage. From 2000 and until December 2019, he was in charge of the Musculoskeletal Regeneration Program at the AO Research Institute (Davos, Switzerland), focusing on cartilage, bone and intervertebral disc tissue engineering. Since September 2009 is also the Vice-Director of the same Research Institute. He received the Marshall R. Urist Award in 2015 from the Orthopaedic Research Society (USA) and the Ian McNab lecture in 2019 from the Canadian Orthopaedic Research Society.