Mariano Marcos
State University

Japan-based Balik Scientist advances bioactive natural products research at MMSU

By Criztalene Victorio

To accelerate natural product research and advance bioactive technology, Dr. Andrea Roxanne Anas, a Japan-based researcher, conducted her first lecture under the Department of Science and Technology’s (DOST) Balik Scientist Program at Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) on August 25.

Dr. Anas is a researcher and a faculty member from Meijo University's Faculty of Pharmacy in Nagoya, Japan. Her partnership aims to elevate technology transfer, upgrade local research capabilities, and strengthen international research linkages and institutions like MMSU.

Her lecture, titled “Advanced LC-MS/MS Strategies for the Structural Elucidation of Bioactive Natural Products for Food and Therapeutics,” aims to deepen participants’ understanding of advanced technology utilization in food and product discovery as well as its application to community and science integration.

In her presentation, Dr. Anas emphasized that high-tech laboratory instruments supported by proper strategies are important in the discovery and mapping of the exact chemical structure of useful compounds found in nature, medicine, and food.

“LC-MS/MS Strategies are robust tools for structural identification of bioactive natural products for foods and therapeutics when coupled with other supporting techniques,” Dr. Anas noted.

The event concluded with an open-forum discussion, where participants exchanged valuable insights and knowledge about the topic.

Present at the event were MMSU students, researchers, faculty members, and other participants attending both on-site and online.

This lecture is the first of Dr. Anas’  three-part series, where she will facilitate two more sessions focusing on natural product discovery and high-resolution molecular machine applications in biological research on September 22 and October 20.