THIS WEEK IN SCIENCE
Words by Jianna Rose Wee
This week has been another week of excellence in the College of Science, particularly in the Department of Chemistry. These individuals are truly the embodiment of #GalingScience.
IMPACT FACTOR: Faculty and Student Publications
Prof. Allan Patrick Macabeo, Dr.rer.nat, Prof. Grecebio Jonathan Alejandro, Dr.rer.nat,
Mr. Joe Anthony Manzano
Prof. Macabeo, Prof. Alejandro, Joe Manzano, 3rd year Medical Biology student, and co-authors published their article entitled, “Antibacterial and COX-2 Inhibitory Tetrahydrobisbenzylisoquinoline Alkaloids from the Philippine Medicinal Plant Phaeanthus ophthalmicus” in the Plants journal, made available online on March 1, 2021.
Prof. Allan Patrick Macabeo, Dr.rer.nat and Mr. Delfin Ynigo H. Pilapil
Prof. Macabeo, Delfin Pilapil, 3rd year Medical Biology student, and co-authors had their article entitled, “Potential Cancer and Alzeihmer’s Disease Targeting Phosphodiesterase Inhibitors from Uvaria alba: Insights from In Vitro and Consensus Virtual Screening” accepted for publication in the ACS Omega journal.
Prof. Macabeo and his co-authors also have other papers accepted for publication in the journals, Advanced Synthesis and Catalysis, and Antioxidants, entitled, “Recent Advances and Strategies for the Transition-Metal-Catalyzed C-H Functionalization of N-Nitrosoanilines” and “Exploiting the freshwater shrimp Neocaridina denticulata as aquatic invertebrate model to evaluate non-targeted pesticide induced toxicity by investigating physiologic and biochemical parameters,” respectively.
Prof. Mario A. Tan, Ph.D.
Prof. Tan and his co-authors recently published an article in the Biology Journal entitled, “Diaporetheone A Analogues Instigate a Neuroprotective Effect by Protecting Neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y Cells from Oxidative Stress”, made available online on March 5, 2021.
GALING SCIENCE: Faculty and Student Accolades
Prof. Allan Patrick Macabeo, Dr.rer.nat
During the 23rd National Institute of Health Anniversary Conference, Prof. Macabeo and his team from the Laboratory for Organic Reactivity, Discovery and Synthesis (LORDS), including three 3rd year Medical Biology students, Von de Leon, Joe Manzano, and Delfin Pilapil, were awarded the Best Research Poster Awards for their papers describing SARS CoV-2 and non-structural protein inhibitors.
Mr. Von de Leon presented the paper entitled, “Switching anti-HIV reverse transcriptase polyphenolic scaffolds as inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 non-structural proteins vital in infection mechanisms”.
Mr. Joe Manzano also presented the paper on “Antimicrobial, Anti-SARS-CoV-2, Anti-COX-2 and Cytotoxic extracts and alkaloids from the Philippine Medicinal Plant Phaeanthus ophthalmicus”
ZOOMING IN: Online Lectures and Webinars
UST-USP Joint Symposium 2021
On March 4–5, the 4th UST-USP Joint Symposium was conducted with participants from around the world. This was a joint venture between the University of Santo Tomas and the University of Shiga Prefecture in Japan where topics such as “Challenges in science education and research in the new normal” and “Multifaceted Introduction of Lake Biwa/ Country Report,” were tackled, including a session for scientific presentations. Prior to the event, students and faculty staff were invited to submit abstracts for the sessions.
The Other Wave
In commemoration of Community Service Day, the College of Science held “The Other Wave: The Environment Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic,” a webinar tackling the various multi-sectoral issues that have arisen since the pandemic and the countermeasures taken to ameliorate the environmental impact. Mr. Xian Guevarra, National Coordinator of the Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines (YACAP), enumerated the issues in his talk, “The Impacts of COVID-19 to our Environment” and Ms. Lea Guerrero, Country Director for Greenpeace Philippines, discussed possible solutions in “Speaking of Countermeasures: What Can We Do to Protect our Environment?” The event was organized by the College of Science Student Council (CSSC) in partnership with the College of Science Community Development Team.
