LabCorp, a Burlington-based medical testing company, is joining forces with Duke University to develop new treatments for various diseases.

The Biomarker Factory joint venture will seek to commercialize new tools that can help improve treatments for heart disease, cancer and other ailments.

By using so-called biomarkers, researchers hope to identify how a patient will respond to a specific therapy, to predict disease progression and more.

"“The Biomarker Factory will contribute greatly to the realization of the promise of individualized medicine and will assist physicians in understanding how to use newly developed biomarkers to improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs,” said LabCorp CEO David King, in a prepared statement.

Former NCSU leaders James Oblinger and Larry Nielsen are back at work.

Both have returned to their faculty positions following unceremonious departures related to the controversial hiring of former First Lady Mary Easley.

Oblinger, the former provost, is at work on the new research campus in Kannapolis.

Jay Price has the details here.

At this point, the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame isn't anything you'd want to jump in the car and drive a couple of hours to visit because it's still a pretty modest undertaking (plus it has some glaring holes in terms of who still isn't in it). But admission is free and it's right next to the Dale Earnhardt statue in Kannapolis, so you might find it worth a drop-by if you're in the vicinity.

For more, see the story in Sunday's paper. And while I'm at it, I'd like to get in another plug for another Hall of Fame-type artifact that's right here in the Triangle and very cool.

Dole Foods is taking its act on the road.

The California company announced today that it has started the road show, where it begins courting the Wall Street money managers who will buy its initial public offering of stock.

Dole, which sells fresh as well as packaged fruit and vegetables, told regulators that the company will sell 35.7 million shares. It expects the shares to price between $13 and $15 each, and hopes to raise about $575 million, according to a regulatory filing last week. Shares will trade under the sticker symbol DOLE on the New York Stock Exchange.

Billionaire David Murdock is hoping Wall Street will eat up Dole Food.

The world's largest producer of fresh fruit and vegetables, on Friday filed plans for an initial public offering of stock.

The California company was taken private in 2003 by Murdock, the man behind the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis, N.C. Murdock built the campus at the former Pillowtex mill complex, which closed in 2003.