By Emily Ford
eford@salisburypost.com
KANNAPOLIS ó Catawba College might join forces with scientists at the N.C. Research Campus to explore how pollution and other environmental factors affect nutrition.
Leaders from Catawba’s Center for the Environment and the UNC Nutrition Research Institute have met several times to discuss a collaboration.
“I’m very interested in exploring the interface between environment and nutrition,” said Dr. Steven Zeisel, director of the Nutrition Research Institute in Kannapolis. “John has an outstanding program, one of the premiere ones in the area.”
Dr. John Wear directs the Center for the Environment.
When environmental contaminants make their way into food and water supplies, people can get sick and their nutritional requirements can change.
Research has shown that arsenic in drinking water ó a worldwide problem ó might predispose to diabetes, Zeisel said. Scientists unrelated to the Research Campus are trying to understand how arsenic might interfere with sugar metabolism and cause diabetes, he said.
The intersection of nutrition and the environment also interests Wear.
“There are some very good possibilities for collaboration,” Wear said. “More and more, we’re seeing factors that are affecting human health that are environmental in nature.”
Like several other private colleges and universities, Catawba wants a relationship with the Research Campus and its higher education partners, the University of North Carolina system and Duke University.
Catawba has been pursuing a role in Kannapolis for two years.
But progress slowed while the school searched for a new president, Dr. Craig Turner, and a new provost, Dr. Rick Stephens, said Phil Kirk, Catawba’s vice president for external relations and chair of a committee working to involve the college with the Research Campus.
“I wish things moved faster. But we haven’t lost any ground, and I expect us to make some definite progress this year,” Kirk said. “It’s on the front burner.”
Science faculty at Catawba had hoped to add a new faculty position by now, but the economy thwarted those plans, Kirk said.
However, Catawba is still pursuing the creation of a biotechnology degree, he said. Stephens is working with Tim Foley, chief academic officer at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, to offer the third and fourth years of a biotech degree program to complement RCCC’s new two-year degree.
“That’s our goal. Personally, I think it’s going to happen,” Kirk said. “I don’t know the exact time frame.”
Catawba’s strong science department would make a “good marriage” with the Research Campus, he said.
In fact, Wear and Zeisel have discussed mutually recruiting a faculty member.
The co-sponsored faculty member would work at the Research Campus, the $1.5 billion biotechnology hub in downtown Kannapolis.
Both Zeisel and Wear stress the discussion is preliminary, and a new position depends on how much money the N.C. General Assembly allocates to the Research Campus.
Zeisel said they have a “long way to go” and haven’t discussed how they would split costs associated with a new position.
“If we can identify the funding, we can make it happen,” he said. “Nutrition and the environment ó it’s just a natural. That’s how we build these bridges.”
Regardless, Wear would like Catawba students and faculty to become engaged with Zeisel’s research projects.
The Center for the Environment recently hosted a speaker whose Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group discovered 287 toxic chemicals in blood samples taken from umbilical cords of 10 newborn babies.
“We regularly hear about what we regulate, but we don’t really monitor what’s in the human body and how these substances interact,” Wear said.
They also are working on a seminar series that would feature experts talking about how the environment influences nutrition.
Catawba should have an advantage over other private schools seeking a role at the Research Campus because one of the college’s star graduates runs the show.
Lynne Scott Safrit, an inaugural inductee into the Catawba College Business Hall of Fame, directs development of the 350-acre biotech hub. Safrit serves on Catawba’s Board of Trustees.
“I feel very optimistic about it because of our relationship with Lynne Scott Safrit,” Kirk said. “We are finding a lot of areas that we can be involved in.”
Others possibilities include:
– Help develop a proposed performing arts center. Catawba has a renowned theater department.
– Help establish and staff a proposed early childhood center. Catawba has a five-star center.
– Collaborate on the N.C. Music Hall of Fame near the Research Campus.
– Provide student teachers for a proposed boarding school for girls.
– Offer undergraduate classes in Kannapolis for people working on campus who want to pursue a four-year degree.