N.C. Research Campus open for tours during Oct. 20 event

By Emily Ford

eford@salisburypost.com

KANNAPOLIS — The public will have one more chance to see the Core Lab before science begins in earnest and the N.C. Research Campus locks the doors.

The Research Campus, a biotechnology hub in downtown Kannapolis, will host a public dedication at 10 a.m. Oct. 20, followed by an open house.

"Join us as you experience and we dedicate three of the latest scientific wonders of the world," the invitation reads.

The campus will officially open three buildings—the David H. Murdock Core Laboratory Building, UNC Nutrition Research Building and N.C. State Fruit and Vegetable Science Institute Building.

Officials will offer some public tours of the Core Lab, the crown jewel of the campus that occupies the basement and fourth floor of the Core Lab Building.

"We will try to accommodate as many people as possible," said Lynne Scott Safrit, president of campus developer Castle & Cooke.

Even then, tourists will have limited access to the lab, which contains millions of dollars of world-class scientific instruments including the Avance II 950 US2, one of the world's strongest magnets.

The $1.5 billion, 350-acre Research Campus is a partnership between David Murdock and seven public universities, Duke University, the N.C. Community College System and Dole Food Co., which Murdock owns. Numerous private health, medical and biotech companies are leasing space on or near the campus.

In 2004 Murdock, a billionaire real estate developer, bought back an abandoned textile mill he owned in the 1980s and demolished it, making room for the research complex that will focus on improving health and nutrition.