InMotion indeed, ready to serve medical device field

Small office, grand vision: Memphis as orthopedic leader

The Commercial Appeal
March 2, 2007
By Daniel Connolly

Everything is new at the InMotion Musculoskeletal Institute labs, including the staff.

Ruxandra Marinescu, the first scientist the organization has hired, started work on Monday.

On Thursday, she was already giving tours to visitors during a grand-opening party of the organization's offices on South Dudley near the site of the former Baptist Memorial Hospital.

She is part of a small team that is building a research lab to focus on injuries and diseases to the bone and muscle systems. The equipment will be new and the science cutting-edge.

"It's irresistible for a scientist, I think," said Marinescu, who has a doctoral degree in biomechanical engineering.

Organizations ranging from Baptist Memorial Health Care to Medtronic have poured millions into the InMotion project, part of a larger effort to foster science-based companies and expand Memphis' already substantial presence in the orthopedic medical device field, which produces products such as artificial hips and knees.

Roughly 20 months after medical device industry veteran Dick Tarr came from Warsaw, Ind., to start the project, the 6,000- square foot office space is open.

It has two laboratories: one for biomechanics, the study of wear and tear on objects in the body, and one for biologics, the science of methods for regrowing human tissues. It will be several more months before the labs are fully operational. They'll do independent research and contract work for medical device companies.

It will help lead to better patient treatments and grow startup firms, said Tarr, InMotion's president and executive director. "It means more jobs, higher jobs," he said.

Chris Przybyszewski, InMotion's spokesman, said Memphis should soon pass Warsaw, Ind., as the orthopedic industry's global leader.

"We'll pass Warsaw in 10 years, I believe that," he said, then paused. "Maybe not 10 years, give it 20."

Marinescu, a native of Romania who recently moved with her husband from Savannah, Ga., to Memphis, said she's happy about the prospect of running a new lab and interacting with hospitals and other institutions in the Memphis area.

"I think it can't be better than this," she said. And she said she believes in Tarr's goal of boosting Memphis as a hub for orthopedics. "I really believe in Mr. Tarr's vision that Memphis is the next huge orthopedic (center), and I'm happy to be here and help," she said.

InMotion, a non-profit organization, works in close cooperation with Campbell Clinic and has already taken over some of the clinical studies the clinic was conducting for medical device companies like Smith & Nephew, Tarr said. Also, some staffers from Campbell Clinic's research arm joined InMotion at the beginning of the year.

The organization currently has 10 employees and hopes to hire several top scientists in the coming months, Przybyszewski said.