UIC sends participants on the First National Biotechnology Education Conference and Hands-on Training for Teachers

by : Judee N. Nogodula, PharmChem Faculty

The National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (NIMBB), UP Diliman in cooperation with the Department of Agriculture – Biotechnology Program Implementation Unit (DA-PIU) and Commission on Higher Education (CHED) sponsored the First National Biotechnology Education Conference for Teachers held in The Heritage Hotel Manila on November 27, 2009. The said conference was coincided with the celebration of the National Biotechnology Week in the Philippines.

With the theme “Inspiring Filipino Teachers Recognizing the Importance of Biotechnology Education in Shaping the Future of Biotechnology in the Country”, the event offered sessions on the efforts of some schools in developing biotechnology programs and instituting biotechnology courses, introducing tools for teaching biotechnology, and providing updates on current trends in the field. Fortunately, Mrs. Judee Nogodula (Faculty, Pharmacy/Chemistry Program) and Mrs. Florence Alzate (Analyst, Science Resource Center) attended the said Conference.

The Conference started with the presentation of some insights which enlightened by Dr. Benigno D. Peczon, Founding President of Biotech Coalition of the Philippines (BCP), who gave a lecture on “Biotechnology Through the Years”. Dr. Eufemio Rasco, Academician, NAST and Professor from UP Mindanao gave another insight on the “Teaching a General Education Biotechnology Courses: UP Mindanao Experiences”.

On the other hand, a sharing on the status of the BS Agricultural Biotechnology Program of UP Los Baños was presented by Dr. Evelyn Mae Mendoza. Also, Dr. Mariechel Navarro, Manager of Global Knowledge Center of Crop Biotechnology – International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAA) challenged the educators as she presented the topic on The Public, the Media, and Biotechnology: What Teachers Have to Know “. Other topics as overview in Modern Biotechnology such as Nanotechnology, Making Humanized Antibodies and Genomics, Metagenomics, Pathogenomics and Proteomics were also presented by respective Professors of NIMBB, UP Diliman.

To improve the instruction of biotechnology in various educational levels, a society was organized and launched with its name, FIL-TRIBE (Filipino Teachers Recognizing the Importance of Biotechnology Education) and all who have participated took oath as the founding members of the society. The group composed of university and secondary level teachers teaching biology and biotechnology-related topics.

On the next day (November 28, 2009), selected participants attended the workshop in order to fully understand biotechnology and this was held in NIMBB, UP Diliman. It was a very enriching training because modern technology was demonstrated and experienced hands-on activities like the transformation of plant using Microparticle bombardment (Biolistics/Gene gun), Detection of Nucleic Acids Using Polymerase Chain Reaction and Agarose Gel Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (PAGE), Algal isolation by Serial Dilution, Cytoskeletal Staining and Fluorescence Microscopy and Southern Hybridization were done.