Dan Nonte, University Relations
Contact: (336) 334-4314
Posted 5-17-07
GREENSBORO, NC – Our diet can help us stay healthy or hasten the onset of debilitating disease. But which foods help or harm us? And why are the benefits or damage of certain foods magnified for certain people?
At the 350-acre North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis, UNCG will help answer these vital questions. Alongside researchers from the state’s other leading universities, senior research professors from UNCG will explore the molecular and cellular mechanisms of nutrition and the interplay among bioactive food components and genetics.
The NCRC will eventually include a million square feet of office and laboratory space where a textile mill once stood and will enhance the state’s leading role in the $30 billion-a-year biotechnology field.
“By bringing together some of the brightest minds in the field with the latest advances in technology, the NCRC promises to make North Carolina a worldwide leader in nutrition research,” said Dr. Rosemary Wander, UNCG’s associate provost for research and public/private partnerships. “In particular, UNCG’s work will expand our understanding of nutrition’s fundamental processes, helping people live longer, healthier lives.”
When the UNC Nutrition Research Building is completed, two senior research professors from UNCG and their staffs will use about 5,000 square feet of lab and office space on the fourth floor. These professors will be part of the new UNCG Center for Research Excellence in Bioactive Food Components, which will include research technicians, research associates and as many as six doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows.
They will conduct independent research and collaborate with scientists from the other participating universities – Duke, N.C. State, UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. A&T, N.C. Central, and UNC-Charlotte.
“The NCRC will be home to groundbreaking nutrition research projects,” said Dr. Debbie Kipp, chair of UNCG’s Department of Nutrition. “With so many prominent scientists from so many institutions located together in outstanding research facilities, the opportunities for collaboration and innovation will be limitless.”
The NCRC is the brainchild of David H. Murdock, owner and chairman of Castle & Cooke and Dole Food Company. In addition to his support for construction and equipment at NCRC, he has established a venture capital fund to attract new companies.
According to plans for the campus, it eventually will offer lab and office space for more than 100 biotech companies. It also will include 350,000 square feet of retail and commercial space, 700 residential units, a 1,000-seat conference center, a government center for the city of Kannapolis, a 120-room hotel and wellness center, a 40,000-square-foot job training and education center run by the N.C. Community College System, and a girls’ school for junior and senior high school students from across the country who excel in math and science.
The UNCG personnel in Kannapolis will operate their labs and offices as a satellite of the university’s Department of Nutrition, complementing the work of the department’s internationally recognized faculty. Kannapolis is about 70 miles from Greensboro.
Established departmental research into bioactive food components includes how:
• curcumin, a component of the spice turmeric, fights colon cancer;
• overexposure to manganese causes Parkinson’s-like symptoms; and
• imbalances in iron and the hormone prolactin affect bone density.
UNCG has received $600,000 in state money this year to support its participation in the research campus and is slated to receive $1.8 million next year, much of which will be spent on equipment and other start-up costs. In future years, recurring state funding is expected to be about $1.5 million, which will be supplemented by external grants and contracts.
