The North Carolina Research Campus developer is building a “biorepository” in Kannapolis to hold more than 10million specimens for several groups, including researchers studying long-term health issues in the city.
The 40,000-square-foot center will be at the corner of Chipola Street and U.S. 29 in Kannapolis, a little north of the $1.5billion campus being developed by billionaire David Murdock. Work has begun, and the building should be finished in the first three months of 2009.
LabCorp of America will lease the building from Murdock's development company Castle & Cooke and run it in partnership with Duke University's Translational Medicine Institute. Private companies, universities and other researchers also could make use of the facility.
Duke scientists are using specimens culled over the years as well as seeking data from Kannapolis-area volunteers. They will focus on cardiovascular disease, obesity, hepatitis C and osteoarthritis. All specimens in the study will be housed at the biorepository.
LabCorp will have access to all the samples, said Eric Lindblom, spokesman for the Burlington company. LabCorp also does its own testing of specimens, such as clinical trials for pharmaceutical companies.
No dangerous specimens will be stored in Kannapolis, Lindblom said. He said he has gotten that question before. All the samples in Kannapolis will be blood, he said. LabCorp expects to employ 30 to 50 people at the site.
LabCorp already has a major influence at the campus: Its chief scientist and head of its global clinical trials division, Andrew Conrad, also is Murdock's science adviser for the campus and has been one of its key architects.
In other campus news, it will be moving day this week for UNCChapel Hill's Nutrition Research Institute, as furniture and equipment are moved into its permanent home at the campus, said Lisa Canada, assistant director of outreach at the institute.
It's the first major university building to open at the campus. Staff should move in the following week from their temporary quarters. UNC Greensboro, N.C. Central University and N.C. A&T State University also will work out of the building.
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