By Chessa Pae N. Faustino, StratCom Correspondent

Few weeks after it spearheaded the launch of the Indigenous Food Research Consortium, the Mariano Marcos State University has now started working out plans for the development of probiotics from indigenous root crops. 

Through a three-day Indigenous Food Plants (IFP) forum starting today, February 8, MMSU, together with other consortium members, will finalize the research program roadmap and a training plan for staff members. 

Dr. Anil K. Anal from Asian Institute of Technology-Thailand joined the inception meeting today at the Center for Flexible Learning, as he anticipates training consortium researchers at AIT soon. He will also deliver lectures on the current and emerging trends on probiotics research and on AIT’s research and development capacity. 

He was joined by Ms. Kristianne Aireen Peralta Maturana, Mr. Romualdo Delima II, and Prof. Dan Saguil of the Commission on Higher Education - LAKAS (Leading the Advancement of Knowledge in Agriculture and Sciences) program, which is currently funding the consortium. They oriented the group members on the budget aspect of the IFP-Probiotics research program.   

On the third day, other probiotics lectures will be delivered by professors from the University of the Philippines – Manila. Dr. Leslie Michelle Dalmacio, a professor of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, will share about probiotics research and development capacity of UP, and the basic concepts of probiotics. Also, Ms. Mia Beatriz Amoranto, a science research specialist, will tackle the trends in the characterization and identification of Probiotics (phenotypic and genotypic methods), and probiotics safety considerations and efficiency.

Initiated by MMSU President Shirley C. Agrupis as the program leader, and Dr. Dionisio Bucao as a project leader, the forum convened university faculty researchers from the departments of pharmacy, food technology, biology and industrial technology. The project teams from the Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College in Ilocos Sur and Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University in La Union are also participating in the series of activities.

PSCA eyes the fulfillment of the IFP project by “benchmarking with international standards on probiotics research and development, and training.”

Prof. Rhian Ramil, a project staff member, further explained the project intends to develop protocols and methods for research implementation to successfully develop probiotic food products. (JVBT/SCO, StratCom)