Biodiversity, Ethnicity, and Forensics

The Biodiversity (for Drug Discovery and Bio-energy) Program of the Philippine Genome Center explores the unique biodiversity found in the 7,000 islands of the Philippines, the country said to be the center of marine and terrestrial biodiversity in the world.

Biodiversity

The Philippine biodiversity is being explored and developed for various applications that would benefit Filipinos and the rest of the world. Ongoing projects include:

  • Venomous marine snails, which produce neuroactive peptides to hunt their prey, are potential source of drugs for pain, epilepsy and other neurological disorders;
  • Microorganisms associated with marine snails and sponges are explored as a source of neuroactive, anti-microbial and anti-cancer drugs;
  • Microorganisms from marine and terrestrial sources which produce useful enzymes for industry, agriculture, bioenergy, bioremediation and waste recycling;
  • Medicinal plants and herbs that contain antioxidants, cancer preventive, anti-cancer, anti-infective, anti-diabetic and anti-hypertensive agents, can be developed as herbal medicines, nutraceuticals and food supplement.
  • Other planned projects are to use genomics to study and conserve endemic Philippine flora and fauna, to propagate natural varieties as well as to generate new high quality varieties.

Ethnicity and Forensics