Philippine Genome Center Agriculture Program Pre-launched

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 genomic research. 

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) on abaca varietal improvement studies; Dr. Roberta Garcia (UPLB) on ongoing genomics research on pili, Dr. Francisco Elegado on 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 at http://www.pgc.up.edu.ph. For updates on biotechnology in the Philippines, check SEARCA BIC's website http://www.bic.searca.org or e-mail bic@agri.searca.org.