NEWS | Past & Present Members
28 November 2024
RJ Francisco and Tim Lee were declared first and second place winners (respectively) of YOUTH SCIENCE FORUM 2024 during the 51st Annual Convention of the Philippine Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology held at The Marison Hotel, Legazpi City, Albay. As part of their prize, they were awarded a 2-month summer internship in Academia Sinica,Taiwan.
03 November 2024
Kenneth Roquid (currently finishing his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim, Germany) is second author of the paper entitled "SPMs exert anti-inflammatory and pro-resolving effects through positive allosteric modulation of the prostaglandin EP4 receptor" published in PNAS.
Shela Marie L. Algodon (currently finishing her PhD at the University of Lubeck in Germany) is a co-author of the paper entitled "Clinicodemographic and Genetic Modifier Correlation in an X-Linked Dystonia-Parkinsonism Cohort from Mindanao" published in the journal Mov Disord Clin Pract.
26 October 2024
Dan Mirador and RJ Francisco bagged 2 of the 3 Best Poster Presentation Awards at the recently concluded 7th International and 15th National Convention of the Philippine Society for Cell Biology. Dan also emerged as one of the 3 winners of the Rapid Fire Oral Presentations. Kim Cabral won first place in the Photo / Microscopy Contest for her work entitled "Neuro-concinnity".
12 October 2024
Our latest paper entitled "Atypical Exon 2/3 Mutants G48C, Q43K, and E37K Present Oncogenic Phenotypes Distinct from Characterized NRAS Variants" is now published online in the journal CELLS.
05 October 2024
Arman Ghodsinia, currently doing his PhD at the University of Cambridge, is a co-author of the paper entitled "Novel immunotherapeutics against LGR5 to target multiple cancer types" published recently in EMBO Mol Med.
08 September 2024
Chuck Bataclan (University of Lausanne) is a co-author of the paper entitled Inducible CXCL12/CXCR4–dependent extramedullary hematopoietic niches in the adrenal gland published in the journal BLOOD.
16 July 2024
Josh Danac (University of Cambridge) is first author of the paper entitled “Competition between two HUSH complexes orchestrates the immune response to retroelement invasion” published in MOLECULAR CELL.
Martin Qui (Duke-NUS Medical School) is first author of the article entitled “T cell hybrid immunity against SARS-CoV-2 in children: a longitudinal study" published in eBIOMEDICINE (part of The Lancet Discovery Science).
Yana Manongdo-Bataclan (Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Switzerland) is first author of the paper entitled “Crosstalk between Regnase-1 and -3 shapes mast cell survival and cytokine expression” published in LIFE SCIENCE ALLIANCE (a joint publication of EMBO Press, Rockefeller University Press, and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press).
Carmela Cruz (International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Biology, Germany) is co-author of the paper “Generation of marmoset primordial germ cell–like cells under chemically defined conditions” published in LIFE SCIENCE ALLIANCE.
Kenneth Roquid (Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Germany) is co-author of the paper entitled “Loss of Smooth Muscle Tenascin-X Inhibits Vascular Remodeling Through Increased TGF-β Signaling” published in ARTERIOSCLEROSIS, THROMBOSIS, AND VASCULAR BIOLOGY.
Kent Canlas (Chung-Ang University, South Korea) is first author of the review entitled “Applications of Biomolecular Nanostructures for Anti-Angiogenic Theranostics” published in INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NANOMEDICINE.
13 May 2024
Jolo Ferrer is a co-author of the paper entitled "Genome organization around nuclear speckles drives mRNA splicing efficiency" published recently in NATURE. Jolo is currently in Caltech doing his PhD.
10 April 2024
Lorenz Chua is co-first author of the paper entitled "Proteomic and transcriptomic profiling of brainstem, cerebellum and olfactory tissues in early- and late-phase COVID-19" published recently in NATURE NEUROSCIENCE.
28 March 2024
Kimi Gattoc was offered a place in the Taiwan International Internship Program. She will be in Academia Sinica from June to July 2024.
20 March 2024
Aileen Uy was offered a PhD scholarship at the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) in Heidelberg.
Dr. Lorenz Chua was selected for a fellowship under the Medical Scientist Pilot Program of the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
Joseph Neos Cruz was awarded the highly competitive Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds PhD fellowship in Vienna.
Mickai Leaño was chosen for the 2024 Taiwan International Internship Program (July-August Batch).
29 February 2024
Shela Algodon is a co-author of the paper entitled "Neuroenergetic Changes in Patients with X-Linked Dystonia-Parkinsonism and Female Carriers" published in the journal MOVEMENT DISORDERS CLINICAL PRACTICE.
17 February 2024
Andrei David was offered an MSc-PhD scholarship at the International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Biology in Goettingen, Germany, and will move there in September.
Marian Abigail Manongdo-Bataclan is co-first author of the article entitled "The mRNA methyltransferase Mettl3 modulates cytokine mRNA stability and limits functional responses in mast cells" published in NATURE COMMUNICATIONS. Yana recently finished her PhD at IRB, ETH Zurich.
05 February 2024
Dr. Rey Garcia was chosen as the 2023 Achievement Awardee of the National Research Council of the Philippines-Division of Medical Sciences.
04 February 2024
Kim Quililan co-first author of the paper "In vitro reconstitution of chromatin domains shows a role for nucleosome positioning in 3D genome organization" published in NATURE GENETICS. Kim is currently doing her PhD at the Francis Crick Institute in London.
Nori Galang is first author of the paper entitled "Vesicular Release and Uptake of Circular LSD1-RNAs from Non-Cancer and Cancer Lung Cells" published recently in the International Journal for Molecular Sciences. Nori is currently doing her PhD at Radboud University in The Netherlands.
Kenneth Roquid is co-author of the paper "Large chemokine binding spectrum of human and mouse atypical chemokine receptor GPR182 (ACKR5)" published in Frontiers ni Pharmacology. Kenneth is finishing up his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Germany.
02 February 2024
Martin Qui successfully defended his PhD thesis (as part of the MD-PhD program) at the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore.
18 January 2024
Allen de Borja successfully defended his Master's thesis entitled "Functional characterization of the non-canonical KRAS mutants K117I, K117N, A146T, E168K, and K172T identified in Filipino young-onset colorectal cancer patients".
18 December 2023
Sadao Mejares and Lance Andrei Esteban are this year's recipients of the prestigious Ed Padlan Award. The award is given to NIMBB's top 2 students with the highest GPA at the beginnning of their senior year.
15 December 2023
Marian Abigaile Manongdo-Bataclan successfully defended her thesis at the Institute of Research in Biomedicine to earn her PhD in Molecular Immunology from ETH Zurich.
11 December 2023
Dr. Rey Garcia was chosen by the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development as the 2023 Best Mentor in Health Research Awardee for the National Capital Region (Undergraduate Category).
29 November 2023
Dan Mirador won FIRST PLACE at this year's Youth Science Forum (YSF) during the 50th Annual Convention of the Philippine Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology held at the Manila Hotel. Dan's research work was entitled "Convergent oncogenic phenotypes of SLBP-DT lncRNA exogenous overexpression and its e-cigarette-mediated upregulation".
20 November 2023
Aeiou Martija (currently a postdoc in Heidelberg) is first author of the paper entitled "EMP3 sustains oncogenic EGFR/CDK2 signaling by restricting receptor degradation in glioblastoma" published in the journal Acta Neuropathologica Communications.
14 November 2023
Vince Arafiles (currently a postdoc in Berlin) is first author of the paper entitled "Cell-Surface-Retained Peptide Additives for the Cytosolic Delivery of Functional Proteins" published in J. Am. Chem. Soc.
08 November 2023
Andrei David won an Excellent Poster Award — one of 30 awarded out of some 1000 scientific posters at the 2023 International Conference of the Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology — for his work entitled "Novel Mutations in the Lesser-Known Ras-Related (RRAS) Isoform Identified in Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer Affect Distinct Oncogenic Phenotypes"
27 October 2023
DMBEL thesis students and RAs received various awards at The 6th International and 14th Annual Convention of the Philippine Society for Cell Biology held at the Baguio Convention Center: Rafael Ambag, Mickai Leaño, and Max Faminiano won all three slots of the "Rapid Fire" oral presentations; Kimberly Cabral won one of the two Best Poster awards in the Biomedical Category; and Kimi Gattoc and Mickai Leaño won 1st and 2nd places in the Microscopy Images/Photo contest for their work entitled "The Ballad of a Dying Star" (showing dying cancer cells) and "Mind the Gap (showing migrating cells), respectively.
15 September 2023
Andrei David was included in the "Highly Commended List" in the Life Sciences category of the Global Undergraduate Awards — the world’s leading undergraduate awards programme which recognises top undergraduate work.
02 September 2023
Chuck Bataclan is a co-author of the paper entitled "Induction of mitochondrial recycling reverts age-associated decline of the hematopoietic and immune systems" published in the journal NATURE AGING.
23 July 2023
Liezel Tamon recently finished her PhD in Computational Biology at the University of Oxford. Tiffany Ong will be starting her PhD at NUS (Singapore) in August. KD Aguilar was awarded an Erasmus Mundus Master's scholarship and will move to Ghent University (Belgium). Joelle Noriko G. Galang will start her PhD at Radboud University (The Netherlands) while Ryonne Solon will do his PhD studies at Academia Sinica in Taiwan.
12 July 2023
Arlou Angeles is first author of the paper entitled "Integrated circulating tumour DNA and cytokine analysis for therapy monitoring of ALK-rearranged lung adenocarcinoma" published recently in the British Journal of Cancer.
Neos Cruz is a co-author of the paper entitled "The Mediator complex regulates enhancer-promoter interactions" published recently in the journal NATURE STRUCTURAL AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY.
Kent Canlas is first author of the review entitled "Trends in nano-platforms for the treatment of viral infectious diseases" published in the Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering.
05 July 2023
Fidel Serrano successfully defended his doctoral thesis at the University of Heidelberg.
03 July 2023
Pao Aguilar, Paeng Ambag, Andrei David, and Allen de Borja started a 2-month research internship at Academia Sinica in Taiwan. Kim Hao Lin is back in the lab from a 2-month stint at Academia Sinica as well.
21 May 2023
Andrea Salvador is first author of the paper entitled ""Age-dependent immune and lymphatic responses after spinal cord injury" published recently in Neuron. Andrea recently finished her PhD jointly from the University of Virginia and Washington University in St. Louis.
Liezel Tamon is co-first author of the paper entitled "ROptimus: a parallel general-purpose adaptive optimization engine" published in Bioinformatics. Liezel recently finished her PhD in Computational Biology at the University of Oxford.
Lorenz Chua is co-author of the paper entitled "90K/LGALS3BP expression is upregulated in COVID-19 but may not restrict SARS-CoV-2 infection" published recently in Clinical and Experimental Medicine. Lorenz is currently a postdoc at Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
15 May 2023
Joseph Neos Cruz successfully finished his Master's degree at IMPRS in Gottingen. Neos did his Master's thesis at Yale University in the US. He has just been offered a PhD scholarship at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences located within the Vienna Biocenter.
10 April 2023
Five members of the lab will be doing a 2-month internship at Academia Sinica in Taiwan between May and August this year: Kim Hao Lin, James Allen de Borja, Jose Paolo Aguilar, John Rafael Ambag, and Andre Phillip David.
23 March 2023
Lorenz Chua (currently doing his postdoc in Berlin) has been invited to attend the 72nd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting (Physiology/Medicine).
22 March 2023
J-Ann Marie Lego has been offered a PhD scholarship at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), and will be working on Ewing sarcoma heterogeneity.
28 January 2023
Jolo Ferrer was offered a PhD scholarship at Caltech and will be moving to Pasadena in time for the Fall semester.
23 December 2022
Arlou Angeles, currently a postdoc at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, is a co-author of the review entitled "Biomarkers for the Detection and Risk Stratification of Aggressive Prostate Cancer" published over a week ago in the journal CANCERS.
20 December 2022
The lab's P.I., Dr. Rey Garcia, was awarded a One U.P. Professorial Chair for Outstanding Teaching and Research (2022-2024).
15 December 2022
Dan Mirador, currently an undergraduate thesis student of the laboratory, was conferred the prestigious Ed Padlan Award for 2022. The award is given to the top 2 students at the end of their junior year.
11 December 2022
Arlou Angeles is second author of the paper entitled "Longitudinal monitoring of cell-free DNA methylation in ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer patients" published earlier this month in the journal Clinical Epigenetics.
09 December 2022
Chuck Bataclan is a co-author of the paper entitled "Raman microspectroscopy reveals unsaturation heterogeneity at the lipid droplet level and validates an in vitro model of bone marrow adipocyte subtypes" published in Frontiers in Endocrinology. Chuck is currently doing his PhD at the University of Lausanne.
26 November 2022
Paeng Ambag and Andrei David were declared 1st and 2nd place winners, respectively, of Youth Science Forum 2022 during the 49th Annual Convention of the Philippine Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. As part of their prize, Paeng and Andrei will go to Academia Sinica in Taiwan for a 2-month all-expenses-paid research internship.
19 November 2022
Ryan Yu is a co-author of the paper entitled "Lost in promiscuity? An evolutionary and biochemical evaluation of HSD10 function in cardiolipin metabolism" published in the Springer-Nature journal Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences. Ryan is doing his PhD at the International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Biology in Gottingen.
Arlou Angeles is a co-author of the paper entitled "Serum cytokines predict efficacy and toxicity, but are not useful for disease monitoring in lung cancer treated with PD-(L)1 inhibitors" published in the journal Frontiers in Oncology.
17 November 2022
Kenneth Roquid is the second author of the paper entitled "Suppression of CCL2 angiocrine function by adrenomedullin promotes tumor growth" published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. Kenneth is currently finishing his PhD at the International Max Planck Research School for Heart and Lung Research.
Kim Quililan is a co-author of the paper entitled "scTAM-seq enables targeted high-confidence analysis of DNA methylation in single cells" published recently in the journal Genome Biology. This was part of Kim's work as an intern in Barcelona, Spain. Kim is now with The Francis Crick Institute in London.
10 November 2022
DMBEL alumni and magna cum laude graduates, Jonathan Chan and Daniel Uy passed the recently concluded Physician Licensure Examinations.
27 October 2022
Jolo Ferrer is a co-author of the paper "An expanded arsenal of immune systems that protect bacteria from phages" published today in CELL HOST & MICROBE, a sister journal of CELL (IF: 31.316). This was from the work Jolo was involved in as a Master's student and later RA at the Weizmann Institute in Rotem Sorek's lab.
27 October 2022
Aeiou Martija successfully defended his doctoral thesis at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg.
10 October 2022
DMBEL's principal investigator, Dr. Rey Garcia, was awarded a University of the Philippines Centennial Professorial Chair for 2022.
09 October 2022
DMBEL alumna Arlou Angeles was first place winner of the Takeda Oncology Forschungspreis (Research Award) for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) research at a big medical conference on hematology/oncology held in Vienna.
05 October 2022
Jolo Ferrer was guest panelist at Clubhouse Talks' Teleportation Hour broadcast simultaneously in Sweden, Manila, Boston, Los Angeles and Italy. Jolo talked about the Future of Precision Oncology.
09 September 2022
Lorenz Chua successfully defended his Dr rer nat thesis, summa cum laude, in Berlin.
20 August 2022
Congratulations to Shela Algodon who is first author of the published letter in the journal Movement Disorders, with the title "Low Frequency of p.S510G in PIAS1 Challenges its Relevance for Modifying Repeat Expansion Disorders".
15 August 2022
Lorenz Chua is co-first author of the article "ELF5 is a potential respiratory epithelial cell-specific risk gene for severe COVID-19" published in Nature Communications. The paper discusses why some people suffer more from COVID-19 than others. Lorenz is finishing his PhD soon in Berlin.
09 August 2022
Dr. Rey Garcia has officially joined the Editorial Board of Scientific Reports, part of Nature's portfolio of journals and the 5th most cited in the world.
02 August 2022
Rey Garcia, the lab's PI, was conferred the rank of UP Scientist II for 2021-2023 under the university's Scientific Productivity System.
31 July 2022
Our four undergraduate thesis students all graduated with Latin honors today: Paeng Ambag (summa cum laude), Andrei David (summa cum laude), Lance Go (magna cum laude), and Abigail Ablang (cum laude).
23 July 2022
Our review entitled "Antioxidant Systems, lncRNAs, and Tunneling Nanotubes in Cell Death Rescue from Cigarette Smoke Exposure" (J.L.M. Ferrer and R.L. Garcia) is out today in Cells.
12 July 2022
Lorenz Chua is a co-author of the paper entitled "Intratumoural heterogeneity and immune modulation in lung adenocarcinoma in female smokers and never smokers' published in Cancer Research, Lorenz is currently with Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin | Charité · Center for Digital Health.
06 July 2022
Brandon Sy is co-author of the paper entitled "RNase III-CLASH of multi-drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus reveals a regulatory mRNA 3′UTR required for intermediate vancomycin resistance" published recently in the journal Nature Communications. Brandon is now with the University of New South Wales.
Fidel Serrano is co-author of the paper entitled "Neurospora casein kinase 1a recruits the circadian clock protein FRQ via the C-terminal lobe of its kinase domain" published in FEBS Letters on 23 June. Fidel is finishing his PhD soon at the University of Heidelberg.
Carlo Cristobal is first author of a review article published recently in Glia, entitled "Development of myelinating glia: An overview". Carlo recently finished his PhD at Baylor College of Medicine.
03 July 2022
Andrea Salvador is first author of the review entitled "Immune response after central nervous system injury" published in Seminars in Immunology. Andrea is with the Kipnis Lab at Washington University in St. Louis.
20 June 2022
Two former members of the lab recently finished their graduate degrees: Carlo Cristobal (PhD, Baylor College of Medicine, USA) and Kim Quililan (MSc, International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Biology, Göttingen, Germany). Carlo will be joining the Boston Consulting Group in Washington, D.C. in August. Kim will be moving to London to start her PhD at the Francis Crick Institute.
06 June 2022
Neos Cruz was awarded the prestigious Otto-Bayer Fellowship for Drug Discovery by the Bayer Foundation. Neos will avail of it while doing his MSc thesis at Yale University in the United States. He is currently finishing his Master's at the International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Biology in Germany.
19 May 2022
Rey Garcia, PI of the laboratory, was conferred the 2021 Distinguished Alumnus Award (Science & Technology - Molecular Biology) by the University of the Philippines Alumni Association.
10 May 2022
Martin Qui is first author of a paper published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, entitled "Favorable vaccine-induced SARS-CoV-2 specific T cell response profile in patients undergoing immune-modifying therapies". Martin is doing his MD-PhD at Duke-NUS Medical School.
19 April 2022
Kim Quililan is co-author of the paper entitled "Analysis of sub-kilobase chromatin topology reveals nano-scale regulatory interactions with variable dependence on cohesin and CTCF" published recently in Nature Communications. Kim is currently doing her MSc at the International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Biology in Gottingen.
24 March 2022
Vince Arafiles was selected to attend the 71st Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. in June 2022.
16 March 2022
Vince Arafiles was awarded the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt fellowship. Vince is currently in Berlin doing his postdoc.
07 March 2022
Paulo Lorenzo is co-author of the paper entitled "Functions and consequences of AID/APOBEC-mediated DNA and RNA deamination" published in Nature Reviews Genetics. Paulo recently finished his PhD at DKFZ in Heidelberg.
02 March 2022
Carlo Cristobal is first author of the paper entitled "Daam2 Regulates Myelin Structure and the Oligodendrocyte Actin Cytoskeleton through Rac1 and Gelsolin" published today in Journal of Neuroscience. Carlo is currently doing his PhD at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas.
17 February 2022
Shela Algodon and Neos Cruz are co-authors of the paper entitled "Transcriptional Alterations in X-Linked Dystonia–Parkinsonism Caused by the SVA Retrotransposon" published today in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. Shela is currently a PhD student in Lubeck while Neos is an MSc student in Gottingen.
04 February 2022
Josh Danac was offered an MRes+PhD scholarship at the University of Cambridge where he will be studying Cancer Biology at the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Cambridge Center. Kim Quililan was offered a scholarship and will be doing her PhD at the world-renowned Francis Crick Institute in London. She was also offered a PhD scholarship by the University of Oxford but chose Crick instead.
02 February 2022
Dr. Che Tumampo successfully defended her PhD thesis enitled “Functional Characterization of the Novel Oncogenic RRAS mutants p.P25L, p.N111= and p.D134N identified in Filipino Colorectal Cancer Patients”. This is part of the MD-PhD program at the University of the Philippines College of Medicine.
31 January 2022
Our undergraduate thesis students—Paeng Ambag and Andrei David—are 2021's recipients of the prestigious Ed Padlan Awards (given to the top 2 students at the end of their junior year).
24 Janaury 2022
J-Ann Marie Lego successfully defended her thesis Master's thesis entitled "Investigation on the microRNA-mediated regulation of the long non-coding RNA HULC in colorectal cancer cells:.
20 January 2022
Vince Arafiles is co-author of the paper entitled "Artificial Nanocage Formed via Self-Assembly of β-Annulus Peptide for Delivering Biofunctional Proteins into Cell Interiors" published in the journal Bioconjugate Chemistry.
12 January 2022
Joseph Neos is co-author of the review entitled "X-linked dystonia-parkinsonism: over and above a repeat disorder": published in the journal Medizinische Genetik. Neos is currently doing his MSc at the International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Biology in Gottingen, Germany.
27 December 2021
Jan Vincent Arafiles is co-author of the paper entitled "Grafting Hydrophobic Amino Acids Critical for Inhibition of Protein–Protein Interactions on a Cell-Penetrating Peptide Scaffold" published in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics.
11 December 2021
Arlou Angeles is first author of a paper published this week in NPJ Precision Oncology, entitled "Early identification of disease progression in ALK-rearranged lung cancer using circulating tumor DNA analysis". Arlou is currently doing her postdoc at DKFZ, Heidelberg.
03 December 2021
DMBEL alumnus Paulo Lorenzo, the lab's first RA, successfully defended his PhD thesis today (magna cum laude) at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) / University of Heidelberg. CONGRATULATIONS!
02 December 2021
The lab's 5th peer-reviewed paper for the year was accepted for publication by the journal Cells (IF: 6.6): "The novel phosphatase domain mutations Q171R and Y65S switch PTEN from tumor suppressor to oncogene".
26 November 2021
Lorenz Chua (currently finishing his PhD in Berlin) is co-author of a paper on SARS-CoV-2 published in Cell entitled "SARS-CoV-2 infection triggers profibrotic macrophage responses and lung fibrosis".
23 November 2021
Dr. Arlou Angeles [currently doing her postdoc at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg] is co-first author of a review published recently in Cancers: "Liquid Biopsies beyond Mutation Calling: Genomic and Epigenomic Features of Cell-Free DNA in Cancer".
17 November 2021
Andrea Salvador is co-author of the paper "GABAergic neuronal IL-4R mediates T cell effect on memory" published yesterday in Neuron. Andrea is currently doing her PhD at the University of Virginia and Washington University in St. Louis.
11 November 2021
DMBEL alumnus Dr. Jian Kenzo Leal ranked #2 in the November 2021 Physician Licensure Exams.
03 November 2021
Carlo Cristobal, currently doing his PhD at Baylor College of Medicine, is co-author of the paper "Regional heterogeneity of astrocyte morphogenesis dictated by the formin protein, Daam2, modifies circuit function" published recently in EMBO Rep.
29 October 2021
DMBEL alumnus, Lorenz Chua, is co-author of a paper published in the journal Nature, entitled "Untimely TGFβ responses in COVID-19 limit antiviral functions of NK cells".
26 October 2021
DMBEL is featured in the College of Science website as part of the "Science, Technology and Society" month celebrations this October. Our research interests, as well as the volunteer work done by members of the lab in the early months of the pandemic, were highlighted. Click here for the link.
19 October 2021
The lab's PI, Dr. Rey Garcia, was awarded a University of the Philippines Centennial Professorial Chair for 2021.
15 September 2021
Our latest paper entitled "Concomitant and decoupled effects of cigarette smoke and SCAL1 upregulation on oncogenic phenotypes and ROS detoxification in lung adenocarcinoma cells" (Carmela Cruz, Jolo Ferrer & Rey Garcia) is out today in Scientific Reports.
14 September 2021
Chuck Bataclan co-authored a review published recently in Best Practice & Research Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism entitled "Bone marrow adiposity and the hematopoietic niche: A historical perspective of reciprocity, heterogeneity, and lineage commitment". Chuck is currently doing his PhD at the University of Lausanne.
Marian Abigaile Manongdo-Bataclan is co-author of a review entitled "RNA-binding proteins and RNA methylation in myeloid cells" published in Immunological Reviews. Yana is doing her PhD at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine / ETH Zürich.
01 September 2021
Martin Qui is co-author of the paper entitled "Rapid measurement of SARS-CoV-2 spike T cells in whole blood from vaccinated and naturally infected individuals", published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation. Martin is currently doing his MD-PhD at Duke-NUS Medical School.
01 September 2021
Martin Qui is co-author of a review entitled "SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells in infection and vaccination", published in Cellular & Molecular Immunology.
20 August 2021
Lorenz Chua is co-author of a paper in NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY entitled "Pre-activated antiviral innate immunity in the upper airways controls early SARS-CoV-2 infection in children". Lorenz is currently in Berlin doing his PhD.
15 August 2021
Aeiou Martija authored a review entitled "The Multifunctional Role of EMP3 in the Regulation of Membrane Receptors Associated with IDH-Wild-Type Glioblastoma" in MDPI's International Journal of Molecular Sciences. Aeiou is doing his PhD at the DKFZ in Heidelberg.
08 July 2021
Arman Ghodsinia was offered an MRes + PhD scholarship (Cancer Biology) at the University of Cambridge. He will be doing his studies at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute and will be affiliated with Trinity College.
21 June 2021
Lorenz Chua is co-author of a paper published this week in Nature Communications entitled "SARS-CoV-2-mediated dysregulation of metabolism and autophagy uncovers host-targeting antivirals". Lorenz is currently finishing his PhD in Berlin.
05 June 2021
Jana Quismundo is co-author of a paper entitled "Identifying genetic modifiers of age-associated penetrance in X-linked dystonia-parkinsonism" published in NATURE COMMUNICATIONS. This is from her work as an intern at the Institute of Neurogenetics, University of Lubeck, in the lab of Dr. Christine Klein. Jana is currently doing a joint Master's degree (Berlin and Amsterdam) on a Neurasmus scholarship.
03 June 2021
The National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) has chosen our team's 5-volume book entitled "Tuklas Lunas Protocols for Drug Discovery and Development" (Dr. Rita Alvero and Dr. Amelia Guevara, eds.) as recipient of the 2021 OUTSTANDING BOOK AND/OR MONOGRAPH AWARD. The lab contributed the entire Manual 2C (Orthogonal and Secondary Assays), almost half of Manual 2B (primary assays) and a third of Manual 2A (Safety Tests).
01 June 2021
Charles John Uy was offered a PhD position at the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute (ONJCRI) in Melbourne. ONJCRI houses the world-class Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.
25 May 2021
Martin Qui is co-author of an article entitled "A Virus-Specific Immune Rheostat in the Immunome of Patients Recovering From Mild COVID-19", published in Frontiers in Immunology.
28 April 2021
Vince Arafiles, who just moved to Berlin for his postdoc, has a new co-authored paper published in the journal Chemical Science. The paper, entitled "A facile combinatorial approach to construct a ratiometric fluorescent sensor: application for the real-time sensing of cellular pH changes", is an output of his former lab in Kyoto.
Shela Algodon has been offered a PhD position at the Institute of Neurogenetics, University of Lubeck in Germany. She will be working on X-linked Dystonia Parkinsonism..
Andrea Salvador is co-author of a paper published in Nature by their lab in Virginia, entitled "Meningeal lymphatics affect microglia responses and anti-Aβ immunotherapy".
20 April 2021
Kenneth Anthony Roquid, currently doing his PhD at the International Max Planck Research School for Heart and Lung Research in Germany, is co-author of the paper entitled "GPR182 is an endothelium-specific atypical chemokine receptor that maintains hematopoietic stem cell homeostasis" published this week in PNAS.
14 April 2021
Our paper entitled "CircPVT1 attenuates negative regulation of NRAS by let-7 and drives cancer cells towards oncogenicity" (Joshua Miguel C. Danac and Reynaldo L. Garcia) was accepted for publication by the journal Scientific Reports.
09 April 2021
Martin Qui is co-first author of a paper published in Med (a Cell Press journal) entitled "Early T cell and binding antibody responses are associated with Covid-19 RNA vaccine efficacy onset". Martin is currently an MD-PhD scholar at the Duke-NUS Medical School.
07 April 2021
Jan Vincent Arafiles is co-author of a new paper published recently in Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters, entitled " Use of homoarginine to obtain attenuated cationic membrane lytic peptides". Vince just moved to Berlin from Kyoto to start a postdoctoral fellowship.
04 April 2021
J-Ann Marie Lego was offered a 3-month internship by the Dresden International Graduate School for Biomedicine and Bioengineering in Germany. She will be working in the laboratory of Dr. Anthony Gavalas, an expert in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. Because of the pandemic, J-Ann will be in Germany from September-November, instead of July to September.
03 April 2021
Our review, entitled "Exosomal microRNAs in colorectal cancer: overcoming barriers of the metastatic cascade" (Joshua Miguel C. Danac, Aileen Geobee G. Uy and Reynaldo L. Garcia), has been accepted for publication in the International Journal of Molecular Medicine.
30 March 2021
Bea Demigillo and Aileen Uy were both offered an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master's Degree (fully funded) scholarship (Innovative Medicine Program). Both of them will be at the University of Heidelberg in Germany during their first year. Bea will then move to the University of Groningen in The Netherlands, and Aileen to Uppsala University in Sweden, for their second year.
22 March 2021
Kate Co was honored as one of this year's two Ed Padlan awardees. The award honors the achievements of Dr. Ed Padlan, a US-based Filipino scientist known internationally for his pioneering work in antibody engineering. The award is given to the top 2 undergraduates of the NIMBB at the start of their senior year. Kate is the lab's 9th recipient of the prestigious award.
04 March 2021
Lorenz Chua is co-author of a paper on single cell mRNA sequencing of patient-derived colorectal cancer cultures entitled "Functional States in Tumor-Initiating Cell Differentiation in Human Colorectal Cancer", published in the journal Cancers. Lorenz is currently in Berlin finishing his PhD.
02 March 2021
Andrea Salvador is first author of a review published yesterday in Nature Reviews Immunology, entitled "Neuromodulation by the immune system: a focus on cytokines". Andrea is currently doing her PhD at the University of Virginia.
01 March 2021
Our paper entitled "Clinicopathologic Factors Associated with Mismatch Repair Status Among Filipino Patients with Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer" (Dennis Lee Sacdalan, Reynaldo L. Garcia et al) is out today in Cancer Management and Research.
25 February 2021
Krizelle Alcantara, was a speaker at the 4th Annual GENE THERAPY FOR RARE DISORDERS Conference in the US (Feb 22-25, 2021; 100% Digital this year because of the pandemic). Krizelle is currently with the Center for Gene Therapy of the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, USA.
24 February 2021
Vince Arafiles is first author of a paper published today in Angewandte Chemie (A Journal of the German Chemical Society), entitled "Discovery of a Macropinocytosis‐Inducing Peptide Potentiated by Medium‐Mediated Intramolecular Disulfide Formation". Vince will soon be moving from Kyoto to Berlin to take up a postdoctoral fellowship.
20 February 2021
Neos Cruz has been offered a scholarship in the MSc/PhD program of the International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Biology in Gottingen, Germany. No final decision yet from Neos though since he is also shortlisted for various other scholarships.
18 February 2021
Liezel Tamon is co-author of a paper published today in Angewandte Chemie (A Journal of the German Chemical Society), entitled "Thermal and pH stabilities of i‐DNA: confronting in vitro experiments with models and in‐cell NMR data". Liezel is currently doing her PhD at Oxford University.
27 January 2021
Andrea Salvador is co-author of a paper published in CELL: "Functional characterization of the dural sinuses as a neuroimmune interface". Andrea is doing her PhD at the University of Virginia.
January 27 2021
Brandon Sy's review entitled "Small RNA Regulation of Virulence in Pathogenic Escherichia coli" was published today in Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology. Brandon is currently doing his postdoc at the University of New South Wales.
24 December 2020
Lorenz Chua is co-first author of another paper on COVID-19 published in Nature Biotechnology. Lorenz is currently in Berlin doing his PhD. Check out the paper via this link: "Hypertension delays viral clearance and exacerbates airway hyperinflammation in patients with COVID-19".
11 December 2020
Carlo Cristobal is first author of a paper in Journal of Cell Science, entitled "Daam2 couples translocation and clustering of Wnt receptor signalosomes through Rac1". Carlo is currently a PhD student at Baylor College of Medicine. The paper is now online, published ahead of print.
03 December 2020
Kenneth Anthony Roquid is co-author of a paper published in JCI (Journal of Clinical Investigation) Insight, entitled "Disturbed flow–induced Gs-mediated signaling protects against endothelial inflammation and atherosclerosis". Kenneth is currently doing his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Germany.
30 November 2020
Lorenz Chua, currently doing his PhD in Berlin, is co-author of a paper published today in Nature Neuroscience, entitled "Olfactory transmucosal SARS-CoV-2 invasion as a port of central nervous system entry in individuals with COVID-19",
20 November 2020
Arlou Angeles, currently doing her postdoc at DKFZ in Heidelberg, is co-author of a paper entitled "Longitudinal therapy monitoring of ALK-positive lung cancer by combined copy number and targeted mutation profiling of cell-free DNA", now online ahead of print in EBioMedicine (published by The Lancet).
06 November 2020
Dennis Lee Sacdalan, MD, is senior author of a review article published this week in the journal Medical Oncology: "Beyond bevacizumab: a review of targeted agents in metastatic small bowel adenocarcinoma".
28 October 2020
Krizelle Alcantara just gave a presentation at the 4th Annual Gene Therapy for Rare Diseases (Europe) Conference. The lab is proud that Krizelle is able to do pioneering work on gene therapy of neurofibromatosis 2 (NF2) with their team at Ohio State University. As both NF2 researcher and NF2 patient, Krizelle's sense of mission and rectitude of intention are unquestionable and awe-inspiring. She has pursued NF2 research from her BSc and MSc theses in our lab through to her current work in the US. Her mission is to #EndNF2.
21 October 2020
Dr. Dennis Sacdalan, who is an oncologist finishing up his PhD in the lab, is senior author of a paper entitled "Patterns of Biomarker Use in Cancer Treatment Among Medical Oncologists in the Philippines", published in JCO Global Oncology.
19 October 2020
Rey Garcia, principal investigator of the laboratory, was awarded a University of the Philippines Centennial Professorial Chair.
13 October 2020
Joseph Neos Cruz left the lab to do a 10-month research internship at the University of Lubeck in Germany. He will be joining a research group working on X-linked Dystonia Parkinsonism.
09 October 2020
Liezel Tamon, currently doing her PhD at Oxford University, is co-author of a paper entitled "RNF40 exerts stage-dependent functions in differentiating osteoblasts and is essential for bone cell crosstalk", published in CELL DEATH AND DIFFERENTIATION. This is from her MSc work back in IMPRS Gottingen.
02 October 2020
Pao Aguilar MD (currently also an MSc student in the lab) passed the physician licensure examinations (medical boards). Congratulations!
30 September 2020
Carlo Cristobal, currently doing his PhD at Baylor College of Medicine, is co-first author of a paper recently published in Biomaterials: "Self-assembling multidomain peptide hydrogels accelerate peripheral nerve regeneration after crush injury".
25 September 2020
Brandon Sy, PhD, recently published a paper out of his PhD thesis at the University of New South Wales, in PNAS. Click on this title to access the link: "Early termination of the Shiga toxin transcript generates a regulatory small RNA".
15 September 2020
Andrea Salvador, currently doing her PhD at the University of Virginia, is co-author of a paper published in Nature Immunology. Click on this title to access the link: "Meningeal γδ T cells regulate anxiety-like behavior via IL-17a signaling in neurons".
13 September 2020
Vince Arafiles, PhD, is co-author of a review article published recently in Chemistry Letters. Click on this title to access the link: "Peptide-assisted Intracellular Delivery of Biomacromolecules".
10 September 2020
Arman Ghodsinia finished his MSc in Radiation Biology at the MRC Oxford Institute for Radiation Oncology, Department of Oncology, University of Oxford, WITH DISTINCTION. Arman was a recipient of the prestigious Chevening scholarship while at Oxford.
8 September 2020
Anton Garrido successfully defended his MSc thesis entitled "Phenotypic characterization of the novel PTEN mutants Q171R and Y65S identified from Filipino colorectal cancer patients". He will soon take up his PhD scholarship at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas.
4 September 2020
Three former members of the lab recently finished their graduate studies: Vince Arafiles, PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Kyoto University; Andrea Ong, MPhil in Bioscience Enterprise from the University of Cambridge; and Abi Hilario, Master's in Biotechnology at the University of Queensland.
1 September 2020
Carlo Cristobal, currently doing his PhD at Baylor College of Medicine, is co-author of a paper recently published in Genes & Development. Click on this title to access the link: "The Daam2-VHL-Nedd4 axis governs developmental and regenerative oligodendrocyte differentiation".
Arlou Angeles, Dr. rer. nat., recently published a paper from her PhD thesis at DKFZ (German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg) in the journal Molecular Cancer Research. Click on this title to access the link: "The ERG-Regulated LINC00920 Promotes Prostate Cancer Cell Survival via the 14-3-3ε–FOXO Pathway"
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Photo credit: Francia Lengyel
March-May 2020
While the university and the entire Metro Manila were on lockdown, 11 members of the laboratory volunteered to help with RT-qPCR/COVID-19 testing: Marlon Echavez, Day Olivar-Echavez, and JM Sytangco at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine; Jolo Ferrer, Mickai Leano, Allen de Borja, Josh Danac, Neos Cruz, and Nori Galang at the Lung Center of the Philippines; Avvin Pelovello at the UP National Institutes of Health; and J-Ann Lego at the Philippine Genome Center. Other members of the laboratory led by Josh Danac and Isay Viola, also helped with mapping and loaning out of qPCR machines to laboratories, mobilization of testing volunteers, donation and information campaigns, and procurement. The lab also made available to the Lung Center of the Philippines many pieces of equipment, lab consumables and reagents: from qPCR machine, biosafety cabinet, centrifuge, pipette sets, multichannel pipettors; through to filtered tips, PCR plates, and other items.
