This editorial started life as an ‘end of year report’ style review of the stem cell and regenerative medicine sector. However, during its preparation it became very apparent that 2006 was not just a further 365 days in the gradual continuum from its origins in the laboratories at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1980s through to a mature industrial sector. 2006 was the year that regenerative medicine started to enter the next phase in its development into a successful and sustainable global healthcare industry. This editorial proposes that the regenerative medicine sector is not moving continuously in one direction from the tissue engineering pioneers through to the establishment of a new commercial sector, but that it is undergoing a similar disjointed journey to that of the World Wide Web. Does this quote from Tim O’Reilly, a leading web commentator and IT book publisher [101], sound familiar?