By Dan Nonte, University Relations
Contact: (336) 334-4314
Posted 12-21-07
GREENSBORO, NC – UNCG has opened an office in Kannapolis, home of the nascent North Carolina Research Campus.
The office in Cannon Village will serve as temporary headquarters for UNCG’s Center for Research Excellence in Bioactive Food Components until permanent labs and offices are finished.
Meanwhile, UNCG has begun interviewing candidates for a permanent center director, who will be one of the center’s two senior research professors, said Dr. Debbie Kipp, chair of UNCG’s Department of Nutrition and the center’s interim director. The university has hired an office manager, Kelly Elliott, who will work full time in Kannapolis starting in January.
UNCG is a university partner in the research campus along with Duke, NC State, UNC-Chapel Hill, NC A&T, NC Central, and UNC-Charlotte. Construction is well underway on the UNC Nutrition Research Building, where UNCG’s center will occupy about 5,000 square feet of lab and office space.
The center is a satellite of UNCG’s Department of Nutrition in the School of Human Environmental Sciences. In addition to the two senior researchers, it will include research technicians, research associates and as many as six doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows.
The center will explore the molecular and cellular mechanisms of nutrition and the interplay between bioactive food components and genetics. Its research will expand our understanding of wellness, healthy aging and the prevention of diseases such as cancer. The specific bioactive food components to be studied will be determined based on the interests and research of its scientists.
Bioactive food components are abundant in fruit and vegetables. Resveratrol, found in red wine, may influence heart health. The flavonoids in blueberries and raspberries may act as antioxidants. And lycopene, found in tomatoes, and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), found in green tea, may have anticancer properties.
The North Carolina Research Campus is the brainchild of David H. Murdock, owner and chairman of Castle & Cooke and Dole Food Company. About 70 miles southwest of Greensboro, the campus will eventually include a million square feet of office and laboratory space, and 350,000 square feet of retail space, as well as townhomes, apartments and parks. The public-private partnership is expected to eventually employ 5,000 researchers and create up to 30,000 jobs.
