A mini symposium and a field tour of plant genetics and
breeding laboratories and facilities were conducted at the
Institute of Plant Breeding - University
of the Philippines Los Baños (IPB-UPLB) last October
20, 2011 as the activities for the pre-launch of the Philippine
Genome Center (PCG) Agriculture Program.
The PGC is envisioned to be a "world class center
of excellence in gene discovery and genomics research that
effectively translates knowledge into applications beneficial
to society", particularly, according to PGC Executive
Director Dr. Carmen Padilla, to the Filipino people.
The center has five programs—agriculture, health, biodiversity
for drug discovery and bioenergy, forensics and ethnicity,
and social, legal, and ethical issues. The formal launch
of all PGC programs will be on November 28, said Dr. Rita
Laude, Vice Chancellor for Research and Extension of UPLB
and Director for the Agriculture Program of PGC.
Dr. Laude said that crop genomics, particularly in abaca,
saba, and pili will be a priority of PGC’s Agriculture Program.
The three crops, she said, are endemic to the Philippines.
In her message, Dr. Padilla admitted that PGC will require
a lot of hard work and capital, but she asserted that a
lot more can be gained. “If you know how to use it (resources)
wisely, the returns are actually huge,” she said on the
outputs of researches on genomics.
The Department
of Science and Technology (DOST) has initially provided
funding to support PGC health research efforts and considers
genomics as one of its priority programs. The Department
of Agriculture Biotechnology Program Office provides
research funds for the ongoing crop genomics studies.
During the pre-launch mini symposium, scientists and researchers
from UPLB and the International Rice Research Institute
(IRRI) presented conducted and ongoing studies involving
genomics in agriculture. Speakers include Dr. Evelyn Mae
Mendoza (National Academy of Science and Technology academician
and UPLB scientist) who talked about Philippine banana genomics
and ongoing studies in UPLB; Dr. Antonio Lalusin (UPLB)
who presented about abaca varietal improvement studies;
Dr. Roberta Garcia (UPLB) who shared the ongoing genomics
research on pili, Dr. Francisco Elegado who discussed research
initiatives of UPLB’s National Institute for Molecular Biology
and Biotechnology (UPLB-BIOTECH) on microbial biotechnology;
and Dr. Ramil Mauleon (IRRI) who discussed bioinformatics
in rice genomics.
For more information about the PGC pre-launch activity
visit PGC’s website in www.pgc.up.edu.ph.
For updates on biotechnology in the Philippines, check SEARCA
BIC’s website www.bic.searca.org
or e-mail bic_at_agri.searca.org.
(Jenny
A. Panopio and Sophia
M. Mercado)
