It has not been formally launched, but it has already shared its resources in a big way.
The UP Philippine Genome Center-Visayas Satellite Facility (PGC-VSF) has lent its reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) machine to the Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) to strengthen the hospital’s capability in testing patients for COVID-19.
PGC-VSF also lent its digital dry bath and provided nuclease-free water to WVMC to enable the use of a different set of testing kits the hospital has received.
The initiative was made possible with the help of the local and provincial governments, the Department of Health-Region VI, UP alumni, and University partners.
PGC-VSF, which is scheduled to be inaugurated on April 28, is the expansion of the PGC in the Visayas, following the launch of its Mindanao Satellite Facility last year in UP Mindanao, Davao City. It is strongly supported by UP Visayas (UPV) and is located at the Regional Research Center in UPV’s main campus in Miagao, Iloilo. PGC-VSF’s program director is Dr. Victor Marco Emmanuel Ferriols of the UPV College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences Institute of Aquaculture.
UP established the PGC in 2009 to harness the use of genomics research for applications in health and medicine, food security, environment and biodiversity, ethnicity, and bioinformatics, among others. (With report from UPV-Information and Publications Office)
