UNCW’s MARBIONC Center, or the Marine Biotechnology Center of North Carolina, will break ground the first week of September at the Center for Marine Science.

For students in the marine biotechnology program, this could mean big opportunities.

“Students will have the chance to do research that could result in permanent future employment,” said Dr. Jeffery Wright of the Marine Science department.

The center will also help set UNCW’s marine biotechnology students on a path for success.

“The MARBIONC will prepare students for careers in biotechnology and transform how we traditionally approach educating future marine scientists,” said Kevin Zelnio, an independent scientist and assistant editor of Deep Sea News. “It recognizes there is an industry for students that combines very useful research with a marine science education.”

Other hopes for the center include job creation and spinoff companies.

But the main goal of the center is to develop new products and commercialize them.

“We are looking for things in the ocean that could be commercialized and then made into products,” said Wright.

For example, the department has begun work developing drugs from cytoplankton that will treat cystic fibrosis. Also, a treatment for the herpes virus is in the works. Because scientists are using resources from the ocean, Wright feels that there are “many things left to find.”

The 69,000-square-foot center will help continue this research while also offering assistance to outside companies wishing to conduct private research in a high quality lab.

Half of the building will be for the MARBIONC department, but there will be offices open for lease to private companies wishing to collaborate with the university.

With the center set to be finished in 2012, Wright hopes that “when one thinks of marine biotechnology, say up in the Triangle, they will mention UNCW.”