Three years after receiving a matching grant for development, University of North Carolina Wilmington’s MARBIONC center is officially open at 5600 Marvin K. Moss Drive.

After a ribbon cutting ceremony Monday morning, UNCW officials led tours of the new research facility – a 69,000-square-foot space containing labs, offices and meeting rooms. The building is the newest component of UNCW’s CREST Research Park, which also contains an aquaculture facility, the Center for Marine Science and an operations wing.

The MARBIONC building opened with two occupants: the anchor tenant MARBIONC (short for Marine Biotechnology in North Carolina) research organization and Ocis Biotechnology and its cosmetic arm, Custom Skin Care DRx. MARBIONC, whose mission is to provide the translational science services that bridge pure research and commercialization of those research findings, occupies about 30 percent of leasable space.

Ocis Biotechnology creates both therapeutic and cosmetic skin care products derived in a sustainable manner from marine sources, according to the company’s website.

Both tenants moved to their new quarters in mid-October.

There are 13 more laboratory units for lease, said Daniel Baden, MARBIONC’s executive director, director of UNCW’s Center for Marine Science and William R. Kenan Distinguished Professor of Marine Science for the school.

Remaining leasable space, to be occupied by industry tenants, consists of 13 separate laboratory units, Baden said. He said his goal is to secure one new tenant per quarter to ensure a good fit between tenants and the center’s mission.

Mark Lanier, assistant to the UNCW chancellor, said that the $30 million facility was made possible through a $15 million grant from NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce) in 2010, and an equal amount of matching money raised by UNCW. The NIST grant was competitive, awarded that year to only UNCW and three other institutions nationwide.

On display during the building tour were MARBIONC’s chemical and biological labs, where researchers were busy isolating and purifying toxic and non-toxic compounds found in red tide algae. The compounds are sold to a variety of customers, including drug companies, for use in pharmaceuticals.

“We’re always looking for new compounds for pharmaceutical companies to use in potential medicines,” said Liz Elliott, a research technician.

MARBIONC’s director emeritus Jim Merritt was among the dignitaries at the grand opening. He described the development of the CREST campus, as well as MARBIONC itself, as one of an evolution of ideas and the seizing of opportunities.

“The intent was to put facilities and programs in place, to train students and to provide information to citizens,” he said. “We used this location strategically to develop the potential that exists to help marine sciences as much as possible, taking advantage of technological changes and research results to address modern times and needs.”

Merritt said that when Baden joined UNCW’s marine sciences faculty in 1999 and became involved in developing the CREST Research Park, he helped tie together various strands of research for a variety of uses and “added a wealth of strategies.”

Merritt, who has been officially retired as director since 2006 but stays involved in marine research at the facility, said it was exciting to see the newest element of his dream become reality.

“It’s really gratifying when you see what you think will transpire actually does,” he said.  “We had no preconception about what this would be; we just wanted to create something that would make many meaningful contributions [to marine science].”