Senior high school students and teachers from various state universities and colleges (SUCs) in Region 1 have undergone training on biosafety and biosecurity at the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) in order to learn how to protect themselves and the environment from disease-causing microorganisms.

The training, which ran from September 18-20 at the University Function Hall, was attended by participants from MMSU, University of Northern Philippines (UNP) in Vigan City; North Luzon Philippines State College, and Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College both in Ilocos Sur; and the Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University (DMMMSU) in La Union.

Experts from the National Training Center for Biosafety and Biosecurity (NTCBB) led by Dr. Marian P. De Leon, researcher and curator of the Microbial Culture Collection from UP Los Baños in Laguna served as trainers and lecturers.

NTCBB is a government organization that envisions to lead in the promotion and implementation of a biosafe and biosecured practices in all academic, research, and medical laboratories working on biological hazards in the country.

"We are training the participants in the development of biosafety and biosecurity teaching and training materials so that they could incorporate these in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) curricula, particularly those capstone researches on valuable biological materials," De Leon said, adding that the activity in the MMSU campus signals the start of a lecture-workshop caravan in the country.

"Hopefully, this will be a kick-off of our activity which we plan conduct throughout the country (this year)," De Leon said, noting that the caravan consists of lectures and demonstration or hands-on activities facilitated by certified biosafety officers from NTCBB who are representatives of different academic, research and medical institutions in the Philippines.

The lecture-workshop was organized by the Philippine Advanced Biorisk Officers Training (PhABOT) in collaboration with MMSU, the American Society for Microbiology, Philippine Society for Microbiology, Inc., Department of Health, Yana Chemodities, Inc., Yakult Philippines, University of the Philippines, and the Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital and Medical Center (MMMH-MC) in Batac City.

Biosafety is the prevention of large-scale loss of biological integrity, focusing both on ecology and human health. These prevention mechanisms include conduction of regular reviews of the biosafety in laboratory settings, as well as strict guidelines to follow. It is used to protect from harmful incidents. 

On the other hand, biosecurity refers to the sum of measures designed to protect workers, environment and population against the loss, theft, use and release in the environment of pathogenic biological agents. 

Aside from De Leon, other lecturers are Arnulfo Greggy A. Apilado from the Ilocos Training and Regional Medical Center in La Union; Jocelyn S. Aquisay from the Armed Forces of the Philippines Health Service Command; Michael O. Baclig from St. Luke's Medical Center; Allan L. Fellizar from MMMH-MC; Dorina D. Sabatin from the Cagayan State University; Catherine Ann PL. Sacopon from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine; and Angelique de Sosa from Universidad de Zamboanga.