Several Schools of Thought, One Commitment
The NCRC is home to eight leading research universities, each with a specific research focus and one commitment- improving human health.
Already, university researchers are partnering together with companies on campus to take advantage of the state-of-the-art-equipment at the David H. Murdock Research Institute to investigate and commercialize new discoveries that can improve the taste, nutrition and shelf-life of foods as well as advance the use of nutrition as prevention and treatment for disease. NCRC universities and their research priorities are:
Duke University
The MURDOCK Study (Measurement to Understand the Reclassification of Disease of Cabarrus Kannapolis), a part of the Duke Translational Medicine Institute, is a multi-tiered, long-term genomic study funded by a $35 million grant from David Murdock. The MURDOCK Study is designed to use advanced technologies to identify genomic linkages – the study of genes, proteins, and other biomarkers – within and across diseases and disorders such as hepatitis C, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and osteoarthritis.
UNC Chapel Hill
The Nutrition Research Institute (NRI) uses genomic, epigenetic, and metabolomic biotechnology to explore why and how metabolism and nutrient requirements differ from person to person. Using this advanced biotechnology, the NRI develops innovative approaches to understanding the role of diet and activity in brain development, cancer prevention, and prevention and treatment of obesity and related diseases.
NC State University
The Plants for Human Health Institute (PPHI) is part of an integrated effort across the NC Research Campus to utilize emerging technologies for plant improvement and human health benefits. Staffed by the NC State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the role of the institute is to develop a new generation of fruits and vegetables which are pharmacologically active at dietary levels of intake and to investigate medicinal plant resources from sources around the globe which may have a place in the future American marketplace.
UNC Charlotte
The University of North Carolina Charlotte has four major roles at the North Carolina Research Campus: bioinformatics services, bioinformatics research, business recruiting and development and graduate and postdoctoral training.
NC Central University
The Julius L. Chambers Biomedical Biotechnology Research Institute (JLC-BBRI) Nutrition Research Program at the North Carolina Research Campus is conducting research to identify and evaluate bioactive natural products from functional foods and herbal medicine for the prevention and treatment of cancer and diabetes and their complications using metabolomic and nutrigenomic approaches.
NC A&T State University
The Center for Excellence in Post Harvest Technologies (CEPHT) is working to discover health-enhancing ways to process fruits and vegetables. The ultimate goal of this research is to add value to agricultural commodities by finding new ways to make food safer, extend shelf life and preserve health-promoting nutrients.
UNC Greensboro
The Center for Research Excellence in Bioactive Food Components (CREBFC) conducts studies to identify and evaluate bioactive components from food, plants, and herbal and botanical Traditional Chinese Medicines for the prevention and treatment of metabolic disorders such as diabetes, obesity, and cancer.
Appalachian State University
The mission of the Appalachian State University Human Performance Lab is to investigate the influence of plant molecules (e.g. flavonoids such as quercetin, luteolin, and epigallocatehchin 3-gallate or EGCG) on age-related loss of muscle mass (sarcopenia), muscle mitochondrial biogenesis, and exercise-induced changes in immune function, oxidative stress, and inflammation.