NC Research Campus Update

Find Out What’s the Latest with this World Renowned Biotech Development

USDA at the NC Research Campus
The first U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists will begin work at the N.C. Research Campus in September. Additionally, Congress is considering a second federal earmark of up to $1 million that would keep the federal agency at the Kannapolis life-sciences hub through fiscal 2011.

The funding represents continued efforts to establish a USDA Human Nutrition Research Center in Kannapolis. The USDA received $1 million this fiscal year to establish a center here.

he center — the first of its kind in the Southeast — is part of the USDA’s Agricultural Research Services, the agency’s in-house research arm.

McCormick to Study the Health Benefit of Spices
The McCormick Science Institute will fund a study this winter at the N.C. Research Campus to determine if culinary spices have health benefits for people.

“We believe that herbs and spices have the potential to be a major force in the world of health and nutrition because they make food taste better and, nutritionally, they may have health benefits,” said Dr. Guy Johnson, executive director.

If spices are shown to improve arterial function or lower inflammation, “people could potentially improve their risk of a whole constellation of chronic diseases by increasing their intake of these spices,” Johnson said.

The McCormick Science Institute is an independent entity funded by the McCormick food company. The institute plans a $125,000 study in the Appalachian State University (ASU) Human Performance Laboratory in Kannapolis.

ASU is one of nine universities and colleges at the Research Campus, where scientists study health, nutrition and agriculture. Dole Food Co. chairman David Murdock opened the campus in 2008.

The study will determine if adding the spices turmeric or red pepper to the diet for four weeks lowers inflammation and oxidative stress.

Local Teachers Hope to Make Science Relevant
Two A. L. Brown High School (Kannapolis, NC) teachers and a researcher from N.C. State University’s Plants for Human Health Institute are hoping to make biotechnology, and science in general, more relevant for local students.

April Baucom and Nikki Wolcott are both science teachers at the high school and spent three months picking raspberries and blackberries, working in the labs and helping with a study on watermelon at the North Carolina Research Campus.

“We talk about (the Research Campus) all the time at school,” Baucom said. “We want to make (science) relevant to our students. How better to make it relevant than to do it ourselves.”

So she and Wolcott spent their summer mornings picking and selecting the berries in Salisbury, then returning to the lab at the campus to do things like weigh, store and freeze the fruit.

Along with Penelope Perkins-Veazie, a researcher with N.C. State University’s Plants for Human Health Institute, Baucom and Wolcott also looked at and tested the firmness and color of the berries.

“(A raspberry) is a high value crop,” Perkins-Veazie said. “Anything we can do to double the shelf life is a huge step forward.”

They also worked with watermelons to examine their lycopene content, which could help with things like controlling high blood pressure, Perkins-Veazie said.

Their work began months ago, when Baucom and Wolcott wanted to be more involved with the campus after hearing about an A. L. Brown student’s internship there.

“We came to see what she was doing and asked if they would hire teachers,” Baucom said.

And while Baucom and Wolcott said some of the things they have studied may not be directly used in their high school curriculum, the connections they have made with the Research Campus will help.

“Hopefully we can get (the researchers here) into our classroom and get my students here to see the lab and equipment,” Baucom said.

Wolcott said it was a way to bridge the gap between the school system and the Research Campus, especially with the new biotechnology wing that will be added next year.

Please stay tuned to the Centralina Workforce Development Board’s monthly E-Newsletter for more developments on these exciting stories. For more information on what is going on at the NC Research Campus, please visit the Centralina Workforce Development Board’s website at www.centralinaworks.com.

Background on the NC Research Campus

The State’s Next Biotechnology Region EmergesThe North Carolina Research Campus (NCRC) has created excitement and interest from the entire Charlotte Region about future careers in biotechnology. The NCRC is a joint venture between Dole Foods, the University of North Carolina System, Duke University and the North Carolina Community College System that will be built over the next five to seven years on the former Pillowtex Plant 1 site in downtown Kannapolis. Projected to cost $1 billion and covering over 350 acres, the project is being funded partially by an investment from David H. Murdock, owner of Dole Foods and Castle & Cooke, Inc.
     
The NCRC will include the UNC at Chapel Hill’s Nutrition Institute, a Dole-NC State University Institute for Advanced Fruit and Vegetable Science, a Rowan-Cabarrus Community College (RCCC) facility, and a science and mathematics school for girls supported by UNC-Charlotte. The development plans also include residential, office, and retail components. Within the NCRC complex will be an $80 million, 311,000 square-foot Core Laboratory with a state-of-the-art contract manufacturing biogenic facility. This facility will be available for use by companies to be physically located on the NCRC. Mr. Murdock has established a venture capital fund of $100 million to help attract biotech start-up firms to the NCRC.

The Centralina Workforce Development Board has been and will continue to be an active partner with local workforce and economic development agencies in the growth of the NC Research Campus.  The Board has already worked with Rowan-Cabarrus Community College and the Cabarrus County and Rowan County JobLink Career Centers in establishing the R3 Center (Refocus, Retrain, Re-employ) for intensive career counseling for individuals interested in the growing employment options in the region.  Additionally, the Centralina Workforce Development Board has assist in marketing and coordinating the involvement of workforce partners with the R3 Center, with the college’s Biotech 101 General Information Sessions for the general public, and with the college’s BioWorks course.

The North Carolina Research Campus Mission

The purpose of the North Carolina Research Campus is to create knowledge, jobs, and progress. These are the goals outlined in the campus’ success:

• Improve human health through research in nutrition and agriculture
• Create jobs through development of the campus
• Bring therapies and products to the public more quickly to improve health and nutrition, and create more jobs