By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
KANNAPOLIS ó This city is about to become a mecca for science.
And the Salisbury-Rowan Economic Development Commission wants to be a player.
The EDC board changed its monthly meeting location for October to Kannapolis Wednesday and heard an update on the progress of the N.C. Research Campus, which is transforming the former mill town to a budding center for nutrition research.
Sheetal Ghelani, a business development associate for the campus, said California billionaire David Murdock’s dream involves more than nutrition and will encompass health care, agriculture, disease research related to aging, medical device research, nanotechnology and more.
A future hotel and conference center will make it a destination for visiting scientists. But the academic research, commercial businesses and various scientific applications resulting from the advances made here could employ thousands eventually.
It won’t be just a place for scientists, Ghelani said. Others will find opportunities ó many with the help of biotech training from Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, which eventually will have a 60,000-square-foot building on the campus.
Kannapolis City Manager Mike Legg described an effort to wean people off the notion that they are ex-Pillowtex workers when it comes to the future.
“There are no ex-Pillowtex workers,” he said. “There are just workers.”
The EDC held its business meeting at the Kannapolis Visitors Center. Board members then took a quick look at the inside of the Core Lab ó which Ghelani had previously described as “an absolutely gorgeous building,” whose state-of-the-art equipment will be a major draw for researchers.
It includes the 950 Mhz NMR magnet that’s the envy of all scientists and best-in-the-world Carl Zeiss microimaging equipment.
EDC board members stood in awe in the Core Lab atrium, whose centerpiece is a table made out of special Hawaiian wood. The intricate table took thousands of man-hours to build.
The lavish interior relied on some 250,000 pounds of marble, and a N.C. artist, featured several times in the Post, painted a mural of mostly fruit and vegetables on the central dome’s interior.
“Murdock yellow,” an actual Sherwin Williams paint color, is used throughout the Core Lab.
Ghelani stated the obvious: Murdock’s imprint is everywhere.
“He had a lot to do with every single detail of this building,” she said. “… He calls every day.”
A grand opening of the Core Lab and campus in general will be held Oct. 20, an amazing three years after Murdock first unveiled plans for the campus and its partnership with the state’s major universities.
Research arms of eight universities will be housed on the campus.
The University of North Carolina Nutrition Institute, a grand laboratory building already erected, will look at the role of nutrition in development and disease.
The N.C. State/Dole Fruit and Vegetable Science Institute, also erected, will develop new generations of fruits and vegetables with supernutritional values. As with much of the work on the campus, it will take the research and translate it to commercial applications.
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte will specialize in bioinformatics, developing the materials and tools to analyze complex data.
N.C. A&T University will be involved in post-harvest technologies and food safety.
N.C. Central University will be trying to advance the knowledge of human nutrition at the cellular and genetic levels.
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro will study bioactive food components and their effects on health and disease prevention.
Duke University, whose major campus building may be one of the next to be constructed, will depend on local residents to conduct one of the most significant, long-term health studies ever attempted in the country.
A Carolinas Medical Center-NorthEast building also is in the pipeline.
Legg said the campus will mean much more than investment and jobs for Rowan and Cabarrus counties. The work done here will be saving lives and solving problems in many parts of the world, he said.