2010 DB Best Thesis awardees Maragaille Capiroso and Valerie Diane Valeriano presented their work “A Molecular Systems Analysis of HOX PPI Networks in Hematopoiesis and Leukemogenesis” at the ACM Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology and Biomedicine (ACM BCB) at the Hilton Suites Chicago – Magnificent Mile. The conference was held on August 1-3, 2011. Aside from being presented as one of 31 posters, their work was selected to be delivered as a lightning talk. Accepted papers at the conference went through a rigorous screening process where three expert reviewers evaluated each treatise. Ms. Capiroso and Ms. Valeriano each received a partial grant from UP Manila to enable them to participate in the conference in the United States. The work they presented was their undergraduate thesis done under the tutelage of Ms. Marla Endriga and Dr. Custer Deocaris.

Topics of interest at the 2011 ACM BCB included Genomics and Evolution; Protein and RNA Structure, Protein Function, and Proteomics; Computational Systems Biology; Processing and Application of Next Generation Sequencing Data; Medical Informatics and Translational Bioinformatics; among others. The conference sponsor, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), was founded in 1947 and is the world’s first scientific and educational computing society. It has more than 92,000 members and its headquarters are in New York City, USA.

When asked about their experience at the ACM BCB, aside from enjoying walking along the famed Magnificent Mile, Ms. Capiroso and Ms. Valeriano had this to say: “It was truly a great first. We were able to meet fellow students who were active in Bioinformatics from the fields of computer science and medicine and also learned a lot from the workshops and the other poster presenters.”

After graduating from college in 2010, Ms. Capiroso and Ms. Valeriano each got scholarships to pursue post graduate studies. Ms. Capiroso is one of the first batch of MD-PhD students at the UP College of Medicine. Ms. Valeriano, meanwhile, is pursuing a master’s degree in Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology, Major in Animal Bio-resources, in Dankook University in Cheonan, South Korea.

The Department of Biology takes pride in taking home the American Society for Microbiology Best Poster Paper Award in the recently concluded 6th Asia Pacific Biotechnology Congress and 40th Annual Convention of the Philippine Society for Microbiology, Inc. held at the Philippine International Convention Center, Pasay City last May 10-14, 2011. The Department was represented by Prof. Marilen M. Parungao-Balolong and her students in their research entitled: "Assessment of the Oral Bacterial Diversity from Carious Dentin and Buccal Mucosa of Caries-Active Filipino Adults." The paper was presented by Lorenz Kristoffer D. Daga, a BS Biology graduate. The co-authors of the paper were Rachel Anne R. Go, Candids Patrice A. Reyes, Leslie Michelle M. Dalmacio and Marilen M. Parungao-Balolong.

Other poster papers presented by Prof. Parungao-Balolong’s BS Biology students were: (1) "Simultaneous Detection and Serotyping of Dengue Infections Using High Resolution Melt Curve Analysis" (presented by Erica Ayn V. Yarra), and (2) "Detection and Identification of Leptospira spp. in Captured Rats in Marikina City via Amplification and Sequence Analyses of lipL32 and gyrB" (presented by Karen Adiao).