NASA Astronaut in Memphis

Astronaut and engineer Bonnie Dunbar spoke this week to a women's-advancement group at Medtronic, and touched on the future of human spaceflight. The Obama Administration has proposed commercializing the flights. The MDN reports it.

Big River manufactures devices for surgery

Two Memphis entrepreneurs salvaged a failing company, and today Big River Engineering & Manufacturing serves Medtronic, Smith & Nephew, et al. The CA has it.

Medtronic logistics 'state of art'

Medronic Inc. has opened a 'state-of-the-art' logistics facility in Memphis. The CA reports.

Wright, Medtronic offerings

The Memphis Daily News reports briefly on product launches this week from Medtronic and Wright Medical.

Medtronic shuffles deck

Minneapolis-based and Memphis-centric Medtronics yesterday announced a reorganization of C-level reporting alignments, intended partly to produce "market leading financial performance." Read the release here.

Cumberland Pharma, Medtronic updates

At Nashville-based Cumberland Pharmaceuticals, latest quarterly revenue's up 18 percent over year earlier, to $9.8MM, but net income is down, mainly due to Caldolor-related FDA- and marketing-related costs, and salesforce buildup. Analysts call is this morning. Today's release is here. VNC report on recent Cumberland IPO is here. The Memphis Daily News reports that notwithstanding the company's 38 percent slump in profits, Medtronic CEO Bill Hawkins stressed in an analysts call that the company's pipeline is full.

NewsBits, Feb. 13

For updates on ICA, iPayment, Tractor Supply, TN Solar Institute interest, Stimulus impact, Tech startup competition, and Med-devices firms...visit our Newsbits, here.

Make it Stop: Sci-tech news here and there

UT Pres. John Petersen says companies are lining-up to take residence in new Cherokee Farms sci-tech park and credits ORNL alliance with elevating UT's stature, KNS.

Don't let anyone tell you there's no interest in LifeSci here in NV: strong response to our story yesterday on KleinerPerkins-based Nodality establishing lab here. Story with Stanford ties does leave one wondering about similar cytometry work that might be underway at VU.

Speakin' of which, Frank Munger says Stanford Ph.D. George Farr will head the new UT-ORNL materials institute.

Great story in the CA this morn about Memphis entrepreneur Dick Gadomski founder of 35-year-old Process Solutions Inc. (PSI).

Resonant Vibes (Louisville) recruited nearly $900K to support RV's downloads service, drawing on KY Science & Technology Corp.'s KY Enterprise Fund, the Commonwealth Seed Capital Fund and private investors in Louisville, Lexington and NYC.

Health IT shouldn't be used to automate bad business processes, but to improve healthcare outcomes. Getahn Ward quotes VUMC's Bill Stead, co-author of widely noted National Research Council study.

Sorry, but this is just gettin' weird: WSJ's Mossberg today on using Google's new feature to track Friends.

Medtronic engineers are giving the time and the company's given the cash to help Memphis public-schools' teams build a robot for the FIRST competition. CA.

MDN reports GTx Inc. got a vote of confidence Jan. 22 when Medtronic board member and former Abbott Labs CEO Jack Schuler bought 8.3 percent of GTx stock. A pharma analyst gave the company high marks, partly because of its drug-apps pipeline, as projected to 2011.

AT&T Kentucky announced that Mary Pat Regan, who previously headed-up regulatory affairs in Illinois, has been named president of AT&T Kentucky.

TVA urged to convert flyash-spill area into long-term research and education center to study enviro-impact, KNS. Gov. Bredesen has asked TVA to find ways to recycle coal ash.