Memphis Paces Tennessee Bio Effort

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, currently pouring around $1 billion into various facilities, leads the medical community in Memphis. The St. Jude complex on the city's north side has its own Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) vaccine facility, and is adjacent to an entire cluster of medical-related development that includes the University of Tennessee (UT) medical school and an array of hospitals.
        Now that cluster is destined for a more prominent identity, thanks to projects like the newly opened Memphis Academy of Science & Engineering, a charter school, and the nearby UT-affiliated TriStar incubator, which is making a new home for biotech startups like cancer research firm GTx.

Part of the $10 million in state funding for the Memphis Biotech Foundation went toward the state's first charter school, the Memphis Academy of Science & Engineering, which opened in August 2003 with a class of 150 seventh graders. The Foundation was launched by philanthropist and businessman J.R. "Pitt" Hyde, founder of Memphis-based AutoZone.

        A recent Battelle Institute study showed that 37,000 people in the metro work in a selected array of medical and scientific fields, with 6,000 in orthopedics alone, supported by the strong corporate presences of Smith and Nephew and Wright Medical. Pfizer employs around 1,300 in the area, and GlaxoSmithKline operates both manufacturing and training facilities on nearby President's Island.
        Around $300 million of research is also under way in Memphis. And the city's touted supply chain advantages feed right into the needs of special handling and medical device and repair firms, producing the attractive cluster target of "biologistics."
        Steve Bares, president of the Memphis Biotech Foundation, points out the city's plentiful supply of high-quality water, something GMP and other facilities count high among their needs when analyzing such factors as filtration costs. There is a shortage of lab space in the area, although approximately 1.2 million sq. ft. (111,480 sq. m.) of it is unfolding on about 10 acres (4 hectares) in St. Jude's complex. He also says the work force training component needs attention, from the charter school level to training for jobs like machining tungsten parts to biotech's precise specs.
        "The average worker in the medical device industry makes $54,000," he says. "It is not just for the educated elite."
        As a case in point, there is early interest from the parents of the new charter school students in a potential community technology training center – offering those adults career entry into the same fascinating world of science that their children are experiencing in the classroom.
– Adam Bruns