ILOILO City – The Philippine Genome Center (PGC) based at the University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) in Miag-ao, Iloilo has been helping in the establishment of various testing centers for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Western Visayas.
The genome center lent its equipment to the Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) to fast track the conduct of tests, according to Engr. Rowen Gelonga, Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Region 6 director.
“They lent its expertise and crucial RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) equipment for Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) to immediately offer RT-PCR tests,” he said in a rent virtual press conference.
UPV Chancellor Dr. Clement Camposano earlier said PGC-Visayas, at the height of the pandemic, lent its expertise and services to health institutions such as the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).
“It created an inventory of required materials for COVID-19 testing, loaned equipment, and conducted online and hands-on training on molecular biology techniques for COVID-19 testing,” Camposano said.
It has also trained 79 medical personnel from nine different institutions in the region and continues to assist these institutions in putting up testing laboratories.
Meanwhile, Gelonga said the PGC Visayas has the necessary facilities that will allow researchers to conduct studies on genomics and other research.
Gelonga added that while the PGC was able to help in the immediate operations of Covid-19 testing centers in Western Visayas, its primary purpose is yet to “provide facilities where researchers can conduct a lot of genomics-related research activities.”
“It has a lot of possible use in the health of human beings, but more than that our PGC Visayas facilities also focuses a lot of its attention on agriculture and fisheries,” he added.
The facility will be open to researchers not only from Western Visayas but all Visayas regions and other institutions as far as Mindanao to conduct agriculture and fishery-related research.
Supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), the establishment of the center was lobbied during a seminar organized by the PGC in this city in October 2017. Its inception took place in UPV Miag-ao campus on March 11 to 12.
Prior the pandemic, PGC Visayas program director, Dr. Victor Marco Emmanuel Ferriols, said they already held seminars and capability building among partners and linked UP Visayas with other state universities and colleges, higher education institutions, and research institutions through the creation of the Genomic Research Consortium.
Currently, they have 34 target collaborators across the Philippines.
Twenty-one have already entered into a memorandum of understanding and 11 are processing their memorandum of academic and research cooperation.
Further, 37 research titles have been submitted and one was approved for funding by the DOST.
Five hospitals and three public secondary schools have also already expressed their interest to conduct genomic research.
“Going beyond the support for PGC Visayas, I look forward to DOST support for the myriad of researchers in our partner institutions throughout the regions,” Ferriols said.
The PGC’s state of the art equipment and facilities can cater to genomics and related research.
It also offers equipment use with or without consumables, genomics library preparation, nucleic acid extraction, nucleic acid quantification, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) verification and real-time PCR. (With PNA/PN)
