Grants to boost InMotion -- Millions will help pay for Downtown labs, researchers

The Commercial Appeal
May 25, 2006
By Rob Robertson

Local efforts to shape Memphis into a global hub for biotechnology research and development have just gotten a big financial boost through a pair of grants from two local foundations.

The InMotion Musculoskeletal Institute announced this week that it has been awarded $3.6 million in grants over three years from The Assisi Foundation of Memphis Inc. and the Plough Foundation to pay for new Downtown laboratories and to make new research hires.

The Assisi Foundation is giving $250,000 to InMotion this year and another $250,000 in 2007 to outfit the organization's new 6,000 square-foot office and laboratory space in the Memphis Bioworks Foundation building at 20 S. Dudley.

Among the renovations will be a new Biomechanical Laboratory and second laboratory.

The Plough Foundation, meanwhile, is donating $3.1 million over three years to help cover extra construction costs and to provide salary support for the recruitment of three primary research positions and their associated staff.

"Securing these grants is incredibly important," said Richard Tarr, president and executive director of InMotion. "This allows us to move forward on the work we set out to do, which is recruit key scientists and build new labs to get to the patient treatment mode."

The first two positions will be clinician scientists who will carry a joint appointment with the University of Tennessee Department of Orthopaedic Surgery - Campbell Clinic.

The third position will be a director of biomechanics, who will carry a joint appointment with the University of Memphis Department of Biomedical Engineering.

"This shows a lot of confidence in what we're doing and we're pleased and honored to have such support," Tarr said. "We needed these kinds of funds to begin directing our efforts in research and start the activity of a true laboratory."

InMotion - formerly the Memphis Musculoskeletal Research Institute - is an independent not-for-profit laboratory which aims to accelerate medical research and discoveries for patients suffering from musculoskeletal disorders, including problems with the hips, knees, joints and spine.

As an independent lab, InMotion will look to foster collaborative musculoskeletal research and development programs by incorporating all phases of the discovery process - from research to product development to marketing to clinical treatment.

The grant from the Plough Foundation is among the largest the 46-year-old organization has ever awarded, said executive director Rick Masson.

"We saw this as both a health and an economic development grant," Masson said. "Those are broad but very important areas to us."

The Plough Foundation was established in 1960 by Abe Plough to promote philanthropic purposes by making grants to not-for-profit organizations in Memphis and Shelby County.

Masson said the foundation also recognized Memphis' unique opportunity to take the lead in a growing industry - a position the city has been in before.

"Memphis has a competitive advantage in the medical device industry not unlike the advantage we had in the logistics industry 20 years ago," he said. "We think it's wise to build on that competitive advantage."

InMotion has also gotten funding from the Hyde Family Foundations and Campbell Foundation, as well as from Medtronic Sofamor Danek.