Musculoskeletal Research Institute changes its name

Memphis Business Journal | Wednesday, February 28, 2006

The mouthful that was the Memphis Musculoskeletal Research Institute has an easier name to go along with its newly focused mission.

The association is now known as the InMotion Musculoskeletal Institute. The group cooperates with the Memphis BioWorks Foundation in promoting Memphis as the nation's center for orthopedics and other musculoskeletal biotech. The two diverge in that InMotion will actually participate in research.

Late last year InMotion appointed Dick Tarr executive director. He came from a 33-year career in the orthopedics industry and academics. Along with a name change, Tarr has been working on ways to bring local scientists and business people together.

More than 60 people showed up Dec. 6 at the FedEx Institute of Technology for InMotion's first event, a presentation by veterinarian Stephen Badylak of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. It was the first in a series of quarterly presentations by the rock stars of the bone business.

110 people attended last week to hear William Bugbee from the University of California-San Diego. His talk was titled "Osteochondral Allograft Transplantation: Clinical Application and Basic Science."

"The new name conveys the excitement, enthusiasm, and commitment that the Memphis community has brought to this endeavor," Tarr said in a statement. "The collaboration between InMotion and local universities, hospitals, clinics, and industry provides a new paradigm for translational medicine by effectively and efficiently forming partnerships to move research to reality in the care of the musculoskeletal patient."