New Nursing School, Other Developments Beef Up Local Bioscience Sector

The Daily News
November 13, 2006
By Andy Meek

Talk to Dr. Steve Bares for even a little while about Memphis' emerging bioscience industry, and he'll usually offer up a meaty metaphor to describe either himself, his thoughts on new developments or a forecast of things to come.

For example, one year ago this month, the 960,000-square-foot main tower at the former Baptist Memorial Hospital on Union Avenue was torn down to make room for new medical-related construction projects. The day the tower was imploded, on Nov. 6, the early morning hours were rattled by a cascade of steel and debris.

Bares' remark, taking stock of the future before the tower's demolition, was: "I feel like I'm in the last mile of training camp before the marathon."

Deep breaths

Cleanup crews only recently have finished clearing the old hospital site of debris and preparing it for new construction - a metaphor, of sorts, for the scores of other new medical-related developments in Memphis.

And that, too, is the source of another bit of wordplay by Bares, who's the executive director and president of the Memphis Bioworks Foundation.

"I can remember a hamburger grinder my mom had growing up, and I sort of feel like the last couple of months have been like that for us," said Bares, referring to the slow, steady grind that comes with managing the creation of a multi-million-dollar hub of industry in the city.

That progress continues. Later this month, for instance, Medtronic Sofamor Danek Inc. will break ground on the company's new six-story, 180,000-square-foot executive administrative facility, and construction already has begun on a parking garage to serve that new building. The company's Memphis facility is at 1870 Pyramid Drive, near the Memphis International Airport.

"And about a week later, we're making an announcement with the University of Memphis on an internship program for science and math students, which we're part of as a contributor," said company spokesman Bert Kelly.

"I feel like I'm in the last mile of training camp before the marathon."
- Dr. Steven Bares
Memphis Bioscience Foundation

Nursing it along

Several months ago, Medtronic - which produces instruments used in spinal surgeries - also donated $1 million to Southwest Tennessee Community College, which is planning to build a new state-of-the-art nursing and science building on the college's Union Avenue campus.

Kim Kreider, a spokesperson for the school, said the new facility is still in the planning and fund-raising stage and that school officials aren't ready to talk about plans in any detail. However, a few details have come out, enough to underscore that the planned facility marks yet another landmark project in the city's effort to pump up bioscience activity.

Medtronic officials certainly recognized the advantages of the new facility; the students who attend classes in the building eventually could wind up employed by the biotech giant. About 1,225 people work for the company locally.

"I guess you could say it was sort of like a seed donation to kind of get things rolling," Kelly said. "We did this for obvious reasons. I mean, we're a biotech company, and we want to see people coming into the community with degrees.

"And part of what they're offering, in addition to nursing and science courses, is sort of a biotech lab technician degree. That's exactly the kind of person we would need to hire for our laboratory work."

Gone to market

There have been other recent bioscience milestones. Medtronic recently announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USDA) has approved an investigational device exemption (IDE) for the company to conduct a clinical trial that studies its Infuse Bone Graft device.

In particular, the clinical trial will look at how safe and effective the device is as an alternative to traditional bone grafting techniques in cervical spine or neck bone fusion operations.

NuVasive, a similar company which manufactures devices used in spinal surgery, is also ahead of schedule in the clinical trial of its new NeoDisc cervical disc replacement device. NuVasive originally had expected to begin enrolling patients in the trial sometime in the fourth quarter of 2006.

The company, which several months ago expanded its operations to Memphis, treated its first patient with the device in September.

The bare bones of it

Meanwhile, the Memphis City Council last week gave the final green light to a special zoning framework that will guide future development in the Memphis Medical District.

The district, which sits at the doorstep of Downtown Memphis, is home to a current list of projects that translates into more than $1 billion in development. And the zoning overlay will serve as a protective placeholder to guide development in the area while city and county leaders - at the same time - finish an overhaul of the entire zoning and subdivision codes for the region.

"That's a major step forward for us," Bares said of the overlay zoning's approval.

For the Bioworks Foundation, revitalization of the medical district currently is at the top of an extensive list of priorities. A symbol of what's still to come is the vacant land where the demolished hospital used to stand - "which is now more or less a football field we've got to do something with," Bares said.

"And it's a big deal to have finished the cleanup of the old hospital, to have managed that, made sure nobody was hurt, to have the process done well and the materials disposed of properly," he said. "Around the first of the year, you'll start to see trucks and cement and work starting to really get going at the site."