UNC Nutrition Research Institute at Kannapolis

1
UNC Nutrition Research Institute at Kannapolis
2
(No Transcript)
3
North Carolina Research Campus at Kannapolis
350 Acres
Hotel, shopping, fitness facility
UNC-Chapel Hill Nutrition Research Institute
Conference facility
Duke Research Institute
NC State Plants for Health Institute
David Murdock Core facility
Existing downtown
Small company incubator facilities
4
Funding

• State of NC providing more than 30 million/yr to
  fund UNC system efforts on the campus NRI

4
5
David Murdock

• 86 yo billionaire
• Owner Dole Foods, Castle and Cook
• Forbes ranks him among the 168th richest in the
  world with at least 4.4 billion
• Convinced that his diet has kept him healthy,
  very interested in bettering health through
  nutrition.

5
6
DHMRI Core Facility

• 150 million gift
• Board (UNC system, Duke, Murdock)
• Top floor and basement of 300,000 sf core
  building

7
Core Facility open now

• Genomics high throughput
• Metabolomics high throughput
• NMR structural biology xray crystallography
• Microscopy
• Animal facilities

Available to all North Carolina University
faculty members, and to industry
8
Kannapolis partners

• UNC Chapel Hill Nutrition Research Institute
• NC State Plants for Health Institute
• UNCC - bioinformatics
• UNCG bioactives in food
• NC AT post harvest food processing
• NCCU zebrafish metabolism, nanotechnology
• Duke Translational Medicine Center and clinic
• Girls science high school
• Industry (Pepsi, Monsanto, Lovelace Respiratory
  Research Institute, Sensory Spectrum, Labcorp,
  etc.)

9
125,000 sf building
10
Concept for Nutrition Research Institute

• Enhance human health by using individual genetic
  metabolic variations to develop nutrition
  solutions that target individual susceptibilities
  and differences.

10
11
We evolved to eat so differently
11
12
And we know that people are very different
12
13
Yet, we assume people are average
Rx with nutrient 60 show no effect 40 show
effect Statistics null effect
13
14
Advantage of identifying metabolic individuality

14
15
Single measures may not provide full picture
15
16
New biotechnology
Nutrigenomics Metabolomics
17
Facilities
Human studies facility Body composition Metabolism
Assessment Cognition Assessment 25 Wet
labs Office Suites
18
Facilities
19
Faculty members

• 18 faculty members their staffs
• At full funding (promised 2009)

20
Mihai Niculescu, MD, PhD
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF NUTRITION Explores how
diet sets the switches that control our genes.
21
Carol Cheatham, PhD
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY Explores how
human infants diet influences brain
function. (DHA in infant formula).
22
Sangita Sharma, PhD
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF NUTRITION Explores dietary
intake in diverse populations. (Inuit in Canada,
etc.).
23
Steven Zeisel MD, PhD
PROFESSOR OF NUTRITION and PEDIATRICS Explores
human nutrient requirements, nutrigenomics, and
nutrition and brain development
24
Two positions open
Metabolomics Nutrigenomics
25
Staff
Harris
Jaworski
Childers
Breitwise
Cooke
Canada
Jordan
Dayvault
Jana Harrison Deputy Director
26
Challenges

• Recruitment in a time of unstable funding
• Timeline for delivery of full infrastructure
  (Core facilities)
• Costs of building versus funds for science
• Building intellectual community and
  collaborations across Universities