DURHAM, N.C. — A new biotech institute is opening Monday at N.C. Central University that officials say will give the state school a place in North Carolina's growing biotech community.

The facility cost $20 million and was financed with money from the Golden LEAF, the  foundation created to distribute money for economic development from the national tobacco settlement.

N.C. Central Chancellor Charlie Nelms said the institute will help the university compete for the same students as established research schools such as Duke, N.C. State and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The university expects to have 200 students in the drug manufacturing program by 2010.

The institute, which goes by the acronym BRITE from Biomanufacturing Research Institute and Technology Enterprise, will be used to train biotechnology and biomanufacturing workers. It includes classrooms, laboratory and office space.