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The Complex Carbohydrate Research Center (CCRC) was founded at the University of
Georgia (UGA) in September 1985 to answer the national need for a center devoted to
increasing knowledge of the structures and functions of complex carbohydrates. Evidence
was rapidly growing of the key roles these molecules play in a broad range of
biological recognition and regulatory phenomena -- cellular communication, gene
expression, immunology, organism defense mechanisms, growth and development. As this
area of research had been a relatively under-funded and under-staffed endeavor in the
United States, it was essential to direct more research attention and investment toward
elucidating the chemical structures and biological functions of the oligo- and
polysaccharides involved in these processes, to train more glycoscientists, and to
bring together the multidisciplinary expertise and the expensive instrumentation
required to serve the scientific community.
UGA recruited directors Peter Albersheim and Alan Darvill and their 16-member research
team from the University of Colorado to establish the CCRC. The group first occupied
rented laboratory and office space in the USDA's Richard B. Russell Agricultural
Research Center until construction on its own 40,000 sq. ft. building was completed in
the summer of 1989. The CCRC had grown to 80 members by then. An approximately 5,000
sq. ft. wing was added to the main building in 1990 to house the center's computer
facilities and 600-MHz nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer. A new 36,000 sq.
ft. addition was completed in November 1997. In 2003, construction was completed on a
three-story, approximately 140,000 sq.ft. facility, allowing the CCRC to position
itself as a leader in the growing field of medical glycobiology/glycotechnology. This facility
includes a Georgia Research Alliance-supported regional high-field NMR center. Our new
facility was the first large scale research building to be funded by the Georgia Real
Estate Foundation. (See the Facilities section of
this site for more details about the CCRC's equipment and facilities.)
The CCRC's 17 interdisciplinary research groups are led by 17
tenure-track faculty
members. CCRC scientists study the structures and functions of the complex
carbohydrates of plants, microbes, and animals to determine the role of carbohydrates
in growth and development, host-pathogen interactions, and disease processes. To
investigate the chemistry and the physiological, developmental, and molecular biology
of complex carbohydrates, the 17 research groups at the CCRC develop and use advanced
analytical techniques, including mass spectrometry, NMR spectroscopy, chemical and
enzymatic synthesis, computer modeling, artificial neural networks, tissue culture,
immunocytochemistry, and recombinant genetics.
Technology transfer, collaborations with industry and academia, and the provision of
carbohydrate analytical services to the scientific community are an integral part of
the CCRC's mission. CCRC personnel are presently engaged in over 130 collaborations
with scientists at universities and corporations in Georgia, the U.S., North and South
America, Europe, and Asia.
The CCRC is the home to the University of Georgia Cancer Center and to four federally
designated centers for carbohydrate research: the Department of Energy (DOE)-funded
Center for Plant and Microbial Complex Carbohydrates, the National Institutes of Health
(NIH)/NCRR Research Resource for Integrated Glycotechnology, the NIH/NCRR Integrated
Technology Resource for Biomedical Glycomics, and an NSF Functional Genomics Center: A
Monoclonal Antibody Toolkit for Functional Genomics of Plant Cell Walls. As a federal
center, the CCRC provides analytical services to scientists in university, government,
or industrial laboratories who are interested in complex carbohydrate molecules and
offers two one-week, hands-on, laboratory training courses every summer in the
techniques used to analyze complex carbohydrates. More information on routine and
specialized analyses available as well as the training courses can be obtained by
entering the Services link.
CCRC faculty members hold joint appointments in the departments of biochemistry and molecular biology, chemistry, plant biology, and plant pathology; students can apply to conduct their graduate research, undergraduate projects, or internships with center faculty. The CCRC also trains postdoctoral research associates and visiting scientists from the U.S. and around the world in the principles, methods, and analytical techniques used to study complex carbohydrates. The center is supported by federal, state, industrial, and foundation funds and brings in around $10 million annually in research funds.
Funding for the CCRC is provided by the
Georgia Research Alliance,
National Institutes of Health,
U.S. Department of Energy,
National Science Foundation,
and other industrial and nonprofit sources.
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