Sutures

To commemorate the month that the company first listed sutures in its 1887 inventory book, we’re unspooling fun facts about the ubiquitous medical innovation.

Johnson & Johnson got its start as a pioneer of sterile surgical sutures and continues to make advancements today. Jesse Nawrocki, Ph.D., shares how he and his award-winning team are working to make surgery easier for doctors and safer for patients.

Frederick Shelton has spent 21 years engineering cutting-edge innovations to help propel medicine forward. On what would have been Thomas Edison’s 172nd birthday, this latter-day great American inventor shares the life-changing medical devices he’s most proud of designing.

For this season of giving, we take a look at a special, 25-year partnership between Mercy Ships and Johnson & Johnson that’s leaving hope, healing and resilience in its wake.

From their use in Ancient Egypt (really!) to later innovations like topical skin adhesives, sutures have a long history of saving lives—a story Johnson & Johnson’s been part of since the 1800s.