DURHAM N.C.
Duke University’s medical school is getting its largest-ever donation of $35 million to fund a research project at the new North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis, officials said Monday.
Billionaire businessman David Murdock, whose real estate company is creating the park, said the donation will fund a project aimed at creating a database of human health and disease.
The project will be named M.U.R.D.O.C.K, or the Measurement to Understand the Reclassification of Disease of Cabarrus and Kannapolis. Its focus will be cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, hepatitis, osteoarthritis and mental illness.
Murdock said human health has been his passion since his wife died of cancer. Murdock owns Dole Food Co. and real estate developer Castle & Cooke.
“In this life, we have only a few opportunities to make a lasting difference in the world,” Murdock said. “I am proud to join with the great researchers at Duke University to seize this opportunity and transform the world’s approach to the prevention and treatment of disease.”
The project has huge potential, officials said.
