On April 10 at 8am, the University of the Philippines will hold the groundbreaking ceremony of the Philippine Genome Center building. The event will be led by the UP President Alfredo E. Pascual joined by the Honorable DOST Secretary Mario G. Montejo.
The soon-to-be home of the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) is located along A. Ma. Regidor Street across the PAG-ASA Observatory, and behind the newly-constructed National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology in the National Science Complex in UP Diliman campus. It will house three (3) core facilities namely the DNA Sequencing Core Facility (DSCF), Core Facility for Bioinformatics (CFB), and Biobank Facility (BF) as well as the offices and research laboratories of the PGC’s five (5) research programs namely Agriculture/Livestock/Fisheries; Biodiversity for Drug Discovery and Bio-energy; Ethics, Legal and Social Issues; Forensics and Ethnicity; and the Health Program.
The Philippine Genome Center is a multidisciplinary institution that combines basic and applied research for the development of health diagnostics, therapeutics, DNA forensics and preventive products, and improved crop, aquaculture and animal varieties. It is a genomics-focused and multidisciplinary research unit of the University of the Philippines attached to the Office of the President. It was created by the UP Board of Regents during its 1246th Meeting held on July 31, 2009.
