By Emily Ford

eford@salisburypost.com

KANNAPOLIS—Appalachian State University's human performance lab at the N.C. Research Campus could open this summer.

"Plans are progressing," lab director Dr. David Nieman wrote in an e-mail. "I hope to have my lab space located at the NCRC by August and be fully operational early in the fall."

State funding for the ASU Human Performance Laboratory in Kannapolis has yet to be determined, said Dr. Lorin Baumhover, Appalachian State's chief of staff.

While the university awaits the final state budget, it continues talks with N.C. Research Campus founder David H. Murdock and his real estate development company Castle & Cooke North Carolina.

"We are still in active negotiations with Mr. Murdock and his staff, so we look forward to continuing that dialog," Baumhover said.

While Castle & Cooke will construct all buildings on the 350-acre Research Campus, public universities with a presence there must rely on the state to fund salaries and programs and pay rent.

Appalachian State will be the eighth university conducting research in Kannapolis this fall. The school's focus on exercise makes it an exciting new partner, said Lynne Scott Safrit, president of Castle & Cooke North Carolina.

"I wish it had been part of the initiative from day one," she said.

Safrit said she and Murdock relied on the University of North Carolina System to help them choose university partners when Murdock announced the concept for the Research Campus in 2005.

"Somehow, ASU didn't get looked at as strongly as it could have been," she said. "I'm glad now that we're talking with them and their research can dovetail with the mission of the campus."

Murdock, an 85-year-old health fanatic who exercises daily, wants the campus to focus on health and nutrition.

The campus already had partnered with six other UNC System schools when Safrit and Dr. Steve Leath, the system's new vice president for research, visited Neiman's lab in Boone earlier this year.

"Steve Leath and I looked at each other and had an 'ah-ha' moment," Safrit said. "We said we've got to find a way to have them be a part of what we're doing with nutrition research.

"What they are doing is so cutting edge. It's very much in line with the things Mr. Murdock wants to study."

Nieman and his team study molecules from plants that offer potential health benefits for humans.

His team's success with a molecule called quercetin, which they proved can reduce illness and boost immunity, caught Murdock's attention. Murdock promptly invited Appalachian State to join the $1.5 billion biotechnology complex in Kannapolis.

Nieman wants to hire four new faculty and three new staff members. He would direct the lab, splitting his time between Boone and Kannapolis.

Other higher education partners at the N.C. Research Campus include Duke University, UNC at Chapel Hill, UNC at Greensboro, UNC at Charlotte, N.C. State University, N.C. A&T University and N.C. Central University.

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