ILOILO City – Melissa June Paderog, a faculty member of Department of Pharmacy of the University of San Agustin (USA), was awarded 2nd runner up in the prestigious Merck Young Scientist Award 2018 on Nov. 26, 2018.
Paderog won a cash incentive of P10,000 and P50,000.00 worth of Merck reagents. The other winners were Chromewell Agustin Mojica from University of the Philippines Diliman (grand winner) and Carmela Rieline Cruz also from University of the Philippines Diliman (1st runner up).
Mojica and Cruz received cash incentive worth P50,000 and P100,000.00 worth of
Merck reagents and cash incentive worth P25,000 and P65,000.00 worth of Merck reagents, respectively.
Paderog is a researcher at the Center for Chemical Biology and Biotechnology (C2B2) of USA under the mentorship of the two in-house DOST Balik Scientist Dr. Doralyn Dalisay and Dr. Jonel Saludes.
She presented her research proposal on the antibiotic potential of marine sediments derived-Actinobacteria that target bacterial cell membrane in ESKAPE Pathogens.
The Merck Young Scientist Award is a national research competition sponsored by Merck, a German multinational pharmaceutical and life science company. The research competition is open to young aspiring scientists with MS or PhD degree (below 40 years old) with research interest in biomedical or material science.
Twenty-five research proposals were submitted by young scientists from all regions of
the country for this competition and were screened by a panel of experts.
Last October 19, 2018, the top 10 best research proposals were identified and the work of Ms. Paderog was included with other participants from Adamson University, University of Santo Tomas, and University of the Philippines Diliman.
The top 10 proponents were evaluated again during the Tier 2 of the competition last
Nov. 26, 2018 at Novotel Hotel in Quezon City through poster and oral presentation followed by
an oral examination. The competition was judged by four biomedical experts: Dr. Sylvia Peng, Business Development Manager and Digital Marketing Team Lead of Merck Group and Field Application Scientist of Merck Millipore; Dr. Roland Remenyi, Head of Biomedical Research Institute Unit of The Medical City; Dr. Ronald Matias, Senior Research Scientist of St Luke’s Medical Center Research and Biotechnology Department; and Dr. Asanga Halangoda, Director of Merck Life Science Division.
Merck is a German multinational pharmaceutical and life science company that is celebrating its 350th anniversary as the oldest pharmaceutical company and chemical enterprise in the world. As the company ventured to answer some of the toughest problems in life science, they do collaboration with the global scientific community providing scientists and researchers with best quality laboratory reagents and technologies dedicated to make research and biotechnology production easier, faster, and reliable.
Through Merck Young Scientist Awards, Merck supports brilliant young minds to become actively engaged in solving crucial life science problems. (With USA/PN)
