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Core Lab hosts initial MURDOCK Study lecture
Bridgett Baker
Dr. Robert Califf, the lead researcher of the MURDOCK Study, explains human genomes to a large crowd on Tuesday at the North Carolina Research Campus Core Laboratory.
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Published: September 9, 2008
KANNAPOLIS — It was the first time the Core Research Laboratory was open to the public.
The centerpiece of the North Carolina Research Campus hosted the first of the MURDOCK Study lectures and drew about 300 people Tuesday to the behemoth building on Main Street.
As they walked through the brass doors and into the atrium, they marveled at the elaborate marble design at the center of the floor at the basket of fruits and vegetables painted in the dome 120 feet above.
"It's just so beautiful," said Jeannie Childers of Kannapolis. "I looked up at the dome, and it was like looking at a ray of sunshine."
Duke Translational Medicine Institute hosted its first lecture on the MURDOCK Study in one of the conference rooms in the Core Lab.
Victoria Christian, the chief operating officer of the DTMI, said she was "honored to share the first night under this roof with 300 people, who come from a vibrant community."
Dr. Rob Califf, the lead researcher for the MURDOCK Study, gave an overview of the study to a standing-room-only crowd.
He said the future of medicine would be on an individual level, where a physician could tailor-make a course of treatment for a patient.
"We have room for significant progress," he said. "And it is a major expectation from everyone that we're going to get better. It's just a matter of how we're going to do that."
Duke announced the MURDOCK Study almost a year ago. Armed with a $35 million grant from Dole Food Company owner David Murdock, Duke researchers plan to conduct a large-scale, long-term study into the genetic effects of human disease and to create new treatments.
"Duke is a university with outrageous ambition — Terry Sanford said that," Califf said, referring to the former U.S. senator from North Carolina and former Duke president.
He said Kannapolis could become world-famous again for the advances in science expected to come out of the research campus.
"We hope, in the future, that when a doctor looks on the Internet for medical knowledge from a textbook, that it's coming from Kannapolis," Califf said.
Duke plans to begin recruiting patients for the MURDOCK Study by the end of October or early November.
• Contact reporter Ben McNeely: 704-789-9131
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