The Complex Carbohydrate Research Center focuses much of its research on one of the central components of the human diet – complex carbohydrates. The center’s interdisciplinary research groups develop increasingly important information about the structures and functions of complex carbohydrates. Founded in 1985, the center is one of only three centers worldwide dedicated to complex carbohydrate research.

The center is also home to five federally-designated centers for carbohydrate research:

• Department of Energy Center for Plant and Microbial Complex Carbohydrates
• National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) Integrated Technology Resource for Biomedical Glycomics  
• NIH/NCRR Research Resource for Integrated Glycotechnology
• National Science Foundation (NSF) Functional Genomics Center (A Monoclonal Antibody Toolkit for Functional Genomics of Plant Cell Walls)
• NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences-supported Southeast Collaboratory for Biomolecular Nuclear Magnetic Resonance ( www.secnmr.org )

The center provides analytical services to university, government, and industrial scientists who are interested in complex carbohydrate molecules and offers hands-on, laboratory training in the techniques used to analyze complex carbohydrates.

Worth noting: The center serves as the anchor facility in the University of Georgia’s participation in the Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Science Center, a cooperative effort to seek new ways to produce biofuels. Another research team is working to develop what would be the world’s first early-detection method for pancreatic cancer, the most deadly of all cancers. 

Institutions involved: University of Georgia

Research focus: The center’s interdisciplinary research groups study complex carbohydrate structures and functions in plants, microbes and animals to determine the role of carbohydrates in growth and development, host-pathogen interactions and disease processes. A few examples of research areas include carbohydrate synthesis, computational simulations, mass spectrometric analysis, nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometric analysis, study of plant cell walls and exploration of protein-carbohydrate interactions.  

GRA investment: GRA has invested some $9 million in CCRC core facilities, including the center’s 900 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer, one of the few such spectrometers in the world.

External funding: The center has leveraged the state’s $36 million investment over 20 years to generate more than $140 million in external funding.  

Web site: http://ccrc.uga.edu