In 2003, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded $6.2 million to the University of Georgia (UGA) to become a NIH-designated Center for Biomedical Glycomics. In 2018, UGA received a a five-year, $8.3 million NIH grant to further its research into the role cell-surface sugars known as glycans play in the development of stem cells and cancer cells.