By Emily Ford
eford@salisburypost.com
KANNAPOLIS ó President Barack Obama’s inaugural promise to “restore science to its rightful place” has many scientists at the N.C. Research Campus celebrating.
“Any scientist is happy to hear that kind of a message,” said Dr. Mary Ann Lila, the new director for the NCSU Plants for Human Health Institute, who came to Kannapolis from the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign. “We felt pretty repressed under the last administration.”
The Bush Administration kept tight control over the government’s scientific agencies and was sometimes criticized for interfering in the scientific process and even suppressing some scientific findings.
Many researchers felt politics influenced science, instead of the other way around.
“A number of policy decisions have been in opposition to available scientific information,” said Dr. Steven Zeisel, director for the UNC Nutrition Research Institute in Kannapolis.
Eight North Carolina universities with a presence on the Research Campus have a keen interest in the federal government’s attitude toward science. Most of their research money will come from government grants from agencies like the National Institutes for Health, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Agriculture, even the Department of Defense.
“We live and breathe based on our external funding,” Lila said.
Renewed debate
Obama’s inaugural pledge has renewed debate over evolution, climate change and stem cells. But these hot-button issues don’t affect the $1.5 billion Research Campus founded by Dole Food Co. owner David Murdock, which focuses on health and nutrition.
Obama’s priority on science, plus billions of dollars set aside for scientific research in his economic stimulus package, could have a major impact in Kannapolis and North Carolina.
The proposed stimulus package includes money for disease prevention, bioinformatics, electronic medical records and other specialities that could be hallmarks in Kannapolis.
“That’s right in the North Carolina Research Campus sweet spot,” said Victoria Christian, chief operating officer for Duke University’s long-term medical research study based in Kannapolis. “These are things that are right up our alley.”
If it passes, the stimulus package could pump millions of dollars into Kannapolis and provide hundreds of jobs.
Dissenting viewsObama has focused resources on the country’s weakest scientific areas to create new opportunities, Christian said. If it works, it could restore the United States as leader on the scientific frontier.
But not every scientist in Kannapolis feels comfortable with Obama’s pledge to “restore science to its rightful place.”
Dr. Randy Allen, the director of business development for the David H. Murdock Research Institute, questions evolution and climate change and said he personally would not do research with embryonic stem cells.
“I don’t think we are destroying the earth. I don’t buy into that concept,” Allen said. “But I believe we should be good stewards.”
Allen said science can’t explain how proteins, lipids and DNA came together to form life.
“I don’t think being a Christian and believing in a creator, sanctity of life, or that God has a plan for planet earth makes me less of a scientist,” he said.
His beliefs do not affect the way he does his job in Kannapolis, Allen said.
“What does that mean for the North Carolina Research Campus? Not a thing,” he said. “We should not deny people with a different point of view a job as a scientist.”
Guided by science
Allen predicted that much of Obama’s science funding would go toward developing green technology, which would not benefit Kannapolis directly.
But Dr. David Nieman said Obama will push for spending on disease prevention, a crucial part of the work at the Research Campus.
Nieman, director for the ASU Human Performance Laboratory in Kannapolis and Boone, welcomes the new emphasis on science.
“Humans are biased by nature,” he said. “If we don’t use science to help guide us, we get goofed up.”
In the previous administration, “politics and bias were driving the decision-making, not science,” he said. “I’m very pleased with the change and what it could mean.”
Nieman wants the government to invest in preventative care, paying for things like smoking cessation classes and weight loss programs. Most deaths from cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes could have been prevented with lifestyle changes, he said.
“There is science behind that system,” he said. “This is the way it should be.”
Stagnant funding
Under the Bush Administration, funding for the National Institutes of Health was stagnant, with purchasing power decreased by 13 percent when adjusted for inflation.
The same amount of money bought less science, year after year.
Only about 10 percent of federal grant applications were approved last year, down from about 22 percent in the 1990s, said Zeisel with the University of North Carolina.
“It was a constant sort of squeeze,” he said.
Scientists in Kannapolis will rely on federal dollars to fund their research, and Obama wants to increase spending significantly.
Each grant awarded to an institute in Kannapolis will create more jobs, Zeisel said.
“There’s no question that important science will get generated here,” said Duke’s Christian, talking about the Research Campus. “It’s about how fast it can happen, and how far the ripples will go.”
The United States has fallen behind China and other countries in math and science. Many foreign scientists are trained in the U.S., then return home.
“We are exporting brain drain,” said Dr. Andrew Conrad, chief scientific officer for the Research Campus and co-founder of LabCorp’s National Genetics Institute in Los Angeles. “We need to get more people in America thinking about science.”
Kannapolis projects like LabCorp’s nearly completed storage facility called the biorepository and Duke’s business incubator called the Biomarker Factory will mean jobs for people at all education levels, from Ph.D.-trained scientists to construction workers and messengers, Conrad said.
The design of the Research Campus should garner attention from government grants, he said. The 350-acre public-private partnership built on the ruins of a textile mill features universities for research, a community college for job training, local government for infrastructure and partnerships with nearly two dozen private businesses, including developer Castle & Cooke North Carolina.
Everything revolves around the Core Lab, a five-story facility some have called the most complete life sciences lab in the world.
The campus is “a giant puzzle. You have to have all those pieces,” Conrad said. “But I don’t know anybody with such a purpose-built puzzle.”
High spirits
Obama’s inaugural science promise, plus billions of potential new dollars for research, could help scientists across the country answer complex questions.
In Kannapolis, spirits are high as this burgeoning state-of-the-art scientific complex could meet with millions of dollars to fund research.
The campus is loaded with new technology and eager scientists who want to help people, said Lila with North Carolina State University.
“We have to look outside the box. Obama is embracing that,” she said. “He’s really saying, ‘We’ve got to take advantage of these great minds,’ for the benefit of everyone.”
Obama’s promise means science without stricture, Lila said.
“Science is opening your eyes to everything,” she said, “whether you like what you see or not.”
Part two of this series will run in Thursday’s edition of the Post.