Campus Watch logo. Graphic by Andy Mooney, Salisbury Post.

By Hugh Fisher

Kannapolis Citizen

David Murdock and the staff of the North Carolina Research Campus announced two major additions to the project at a Monday afternoon press conference.

Murdock announced his purchase and donation to the research facility's Core Laboratory of the world's largest superconducting magnetic imager.

The Avance II 950 US2 nuclear imager will allow researchers to study the interactions between molecules and learn how processes work inside the human body.

"(The imager) is really an incredibly remarkable thing," said Dr. Andrew Conrad, chief scientific officer at the N.C. Research Campus.

"It pulls apart molecules, lets us see their component parts ... It allows us to ask questions that have never been asked before, and find answers that have never been answered."

Built by German-based Bruker BioSpin, the 950 megahertz actively-shielded superconducting magnet is a much larger and more powerful cousin of the magnetic resonance imager (MRI) used for medical diagnosis by hospitals.

The superconducting magnet, when in place, will stand more than two stories tall and generate a magnetic field many times more powerful than that of the Earth.

David Murdock, who introduced the N.C. Research Campus project last year, called it "a larger piece of equipment than exists anywhere else in the world.

"I will be donating all of this equipment, entirely at my own expense, to the nonprofit Core Laboratory," Murdock said.

The magnetic imager and associated systems cost approximately $8.5 million — part of a total $17 million package, including other magnetic imagers which will allow concurrent research by different groups of scientists.

Scientists use magnetic resonance imagers for a variety of purposes. Such a system could help find new treatment methods for cancer, help explore the way a body's nutritive and metabolic functions work and can help explain processes such as aging.

"This is a unique system that no one else in the world has access to," said Dr. Frank Laukien, president of Bruker BioSpin Corp.

"This is the most powerful nuclear magnetic resonance magnet in the world. It puts the N.C. Research Campus on the scientific map overnight," Laukien said.

The 950 Mhz Avance II, when delivered next year, will be the largest magnetic imaging system ever put to use.

Weighing about eight tons, the magnet is made of 100 miles of superconducting wire — made from a material which must be kept at minus 456 degrees Fahrenheit in order to work properly.

The magnet will be bathed in 1,300 liters of liquid helium in order to maintain its super-cooled temperature.

But under operating conditions, the energy inside the magnetic coil is "comparable to a limousine moving at 300 miles per hour," according to a statement from Bruker BioSpin.

"The forces in there are unimaginable," Laukien said.

Because of its ability to see more than any other magnetic imaging system, Laukien said that the N.C. Research Campus will immediately become a draw for the worldwide scientific community once the system is in place.

"It will allow us to understand biological function at the molecular level," Laukien said. "It will be the most sensitive tool of its type."

And once it is in place, Bruker BioSpin will use this prototype unit to train scientists on the use of future high-power nuclear magnetic resonance systems.

"We will maintain an interest in it," Laukien said.

"No one else in the world has this," Murdock said. "No university, nobody anywhere has this piece of equipment."

The design of the magnetic imager includes an active shielding system, which means that the magnet will not interfere with other scientific research or equipment elsewhere in the 300,000-square-foot research laboratory, which is slated to open in November 2007.

Also at the press conference, Castle & Cooke Vice President for Business Development Clyde Higgs announced "the first inked tenant" at the N.C. Research Campus.

The BioMarker Group, a company which is researching diabetes and cancer diagnosis and treatment systems, will relocate to Kannapolis.

With affiliated brands GlycoMark and Onconix, BioMarker will take up residence at the new downtown Kannapolis research facility

"The decision to relocate was pretty easy," said BioMarker Group President Eric Button.

The company already had a relationship with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one of the N.C. Research Campus' educational partners.

BioMarker is a medical diagnostics firm whose main focus is diabetes treatment and prevention. The Winston-Salem based company is expected to bring about 200 jobs to Kannapolis.

One BioMarker product, GlycoMark, was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in monitoring patients with diabetes, according to a company press release.

In his remarks, Button said that his company's focus on healthy lifestyles was a good fit for David Murdock's research campus philosophy. Murdock is a proponent of healthy lifestyle choices including weight loss and healthy diets.

And in remarks for the media on Monday, Button talked about the "absolute war" against diabetes that is shaping up worldwide.

"Seven percent of the population, about 21 million people, have diabetes," Button said. "Why do so many people have diabetes? The answer is simple ... the increase in diabetes mirrors the increase in obesity."

With projections indicating that more than 300 million people worldwide could develop diabetes by the year 2020, Button said that his company wanted to make a difference in people's lives by promoting good health.

The BioMarker Group also includes Onconix, which a company press release described as "a biotechnology start-up company focused on the development of cancer diagnostic tests." One such product is a blood test aimed at diagnosis of cervical cancer, currently under study.

Contact Hugh Fisher at 704-933-3450 or hfisher@salisburypost.com.