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First UNC Charlotte Faculty Member Arrives at N.C. Research Campus

Submitted by: John Warner on Feb 22, 2008 at 9:56 am Tagged with: Academia, Research Source: UNC Charlotte

CHARLOTTE – Feb. 20 – UNC Charlotte’s Charlotte Research Institute and Bioinformatics Research Center have announced the arrival of the first research faculty member on the North Carolina Research Campus, the $1.5 billion project being developed by billionaire Dole Food owner David Murdock.

Ann Loraine, associate professor of bioinformatics, moved into temporary office space at the campus this week. She is the first of six UNC Charlotte researchers expected on the Kannapolis campus in 2008.

The Charlotte Research Institute led the University’s presence on the North Carolina Research Campus, opening its’ satellite office in June of 2006 in Cannon Village. Through the leadership of Dr. Robert G. Wilhelm, executive director, CRI is UNC Charlotte’s portal for business-university technology and research partnerships.

UNC Charlotte’s primary partnership with the North Carolina Research Campus will be through the Bioinformatics Research Center. Center Director, Dr. Larry Mays, and his faculty will operate the super computer cluster and bioinformatics facility, providing computational research support for campus research faculty and biotechnology start-up companies.

Loraine was most recently an Assistant Adjunct Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her research focuses on building software tools for genomic data analysis and visualization.

“I’m interested in how plants make compounds that are important for plant defense and human nutrition,” she said. “We mine vast storehouses of public data to find out what genes are important for specific compounds and then we go back to the lab to test our predictions. The amount of genomic data is enormous and getting bigger by the day. It’s crucial to keep making new software that allows biologists to take advantage of the data.”

Together with former colleagues from Affymetrix, a manufacturer of DNA microarrays, Dr. Loraine helped found the Genoviz project (http://genoviz.sourceforge.net/), which brings together developers from industry and the public sector to create new software tools for biology research and education.

Dr. Wilhelm also announced that Clare Cook Faggart, a native of Cabarrus County and UNC Charlotte alumnus, has been appointed manager of CRI’s satellite office and will serve as a liaison for UNC Charlotte and the North Carolina Research Campus.

About CRI
The Charlotte Research Institute is the portal for business-university partnerships at UNC Charlotte. CRI works in the community to accelerate the growth of small businesses and university start-ups. Globally, CRI develops intellectual capital through collaborations with industry, government and academia. New business and research ventures, university partnerships with regional and national enterprises, and CRI spin-off companies all draw research and businesses to the region and spur economic growth.

About UNC Charlotte
A public research university, UNC Charlotte is the fourth largest campus among the 17 institutions of the University of North Carolina system. It is the largest institution of higher education in the Charlotte region. The university offers 18 doctoral programs, 61 master’s degree programs and 89 programs leading to bachelor’s degrees. Fall 2007 enrollment exceeded 22,300 students, including almost 4,800 graduate students.

Media contact: Clare Cook Faggart, 704.934-4003, clarefaggart@uncc.edu