By Nympha Borromeo, StratCom Intern

To heighten R&D on probiotics, prebiotics, and functional food products, researchers from the Indigenous Food Research Consortium (IFRC) based in Mariano Marcos State University participated in a two-week training organized by the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Thailand. 

Delivered by Dr. Anil Kumar Anal, AIT probiotics professor, the immersion training program was held on March 12-26 in the Thailand institute. 

Participants in the training included 14 researchers from the IFRC member-universities, six of which are from MMSU, and four each from the Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University (DMMMSU) and the Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College (ISPSC). 

Prof. Rhian Jaymar Ramil, IFRC project staff, said the training covered salient areas such as chemicals and solutions preparations and calculations, biosafety, molecular detection, cell isolation, advanced methods of isolation and characterization, and encapsulation of probiotics in alginate beads. 

“Through the training, our IFRC researchers learned various techniques for isolating and characterizing probiotic strains using molecular techniques. They were also taught on how to prepare and evaluate the quality of encapsulated probiotics using alginate beads,” Prof. Ramil said. 

Apart from the training, the project management team from the consortium member-universities conducted academic and research benchmarking in AIT. A memorandum of agreement was also signed on March 24 by AIT President Kazuo Yamamoto, MMSU President Shirley C. Agrupis, DMMMSU President Jaime I. Manuel Jr. and ISPSC President Gilbert R. Arce. 

Dr. Dionisio Bucao, MMSU S&T park director and IFRC project leader, said the agreement between the schools aims to identify areas of improvement that promote institutional growth, form new partnerships, and further advance research on indigenous food products and functional foods in the universities.

These activities in AIT-Thailand form significant part in the IFRC project, “Advancing Ilocos Indigenous Food Production Systems Through Industry Collaborative Research and Innovation Toward Healthy Food Security.” This project is funded by the Commission on Higher Education under its LAKAS (Leading the Advancement of Knowledge in Agriculture and Sciences) program. 

In February this year, IFRC members held a forum where they crafted plans for the development of probiotics from indigenous root crops. The consortium was launched in January 2023. (HLY/JVBT/DPTJ, StratCom)