The PSM 41st Annual Convention and Scientific Meeting was successfully held at the Xavier Sports and Country Club in Cagayan de Oro City aka The City of Golden Friendships on May 10 and 11, 2012. The theme for the event was “Microbiology and Biotechnology: Adapting to the Changing Microbial World”.
Regional Director Alfonso P. Alamban, Department of Science and Technology (DOST) X- Regional Director, and Dr. Carol Yorobe, Undersecretary Regional Operations of DOST and DOST Authorized Representative of SEA-EU NET welcomed the guests and participants to the event while Dr. Jessica F. Simbahan, PSM President and Dr. Matthias Sipicski, SEA-EU Coordinator delivered the opening remarks. Dr. Ben S. Malayang, President of Siliman University was the guest speaker for the convention. He underscored the important role of microbes in everyone’s quality of life and how these microbes participate in health, agriculture, the economy and the entire life support system on earth.
Plenary speakers from Japan, Singapore and the European Union delivered interesting lectures on their particular expertise. Dr. Takuya Nihira , Professor at Osaka University, spoke on the ‘On-Off Regulation of Streptomyces Secondary Metabolism by Microbial Hormones’, Dr. Benjamin D. Cuenca, M.D., spoke on the importance of vaccination against cervical cancer in his talk entitled, ‘HPV Vaccine Technologies: Targeting a Challenging Virus’ and Dr. Nobuhiro Yuki shared his research through his talk on, ‘Molecular mimicry between microbes and human tissues causes autoimmune diseases’. Dr Jonathan Salmon delivered a lecture on ‘Point of care diagnostics for early diagnosis of respiratory tract infections’.
Through the initiation of Dr. Matthias Sipicski, Professor, Debrecen University, Hungary, this year’s annual convention also featured a workshop on “The power of microbes – Biotechnological potential of microbial biodiversity of Southeast Asia” which was held in collaboration with the SEA-EU-NET. The workshop featured plenary lectures from noted European Union (EU) scientists and Southeast Asian (SEA) representatives. The goal of the workshop was to bring together scientists from the EU and Southeast Asia and increase awareness of possible research collaborations between the two regions. The ASEAN-EU Year of Science, Technology and Innovation 2012 is a yearlong campaign funded by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) to support these efforts and facilitate joint research.
The scientists from the EU who came to share their expertise and explore possible partnerships were:
Dr. Jozef Nosek, Professor, Comenius University in Bratislava, Dr. Barbara Schulz, Assoc. Professor, Technische Universitat Braunschweig, Germany, and, Dr. Teun Boekhout, CBS Fungal Diversity Centre, Utrecht, The Netherlands. Ms. Virag Zsar presented the workshop overview, Dr Lilis Nuraida ,Program Director at Southeast Asian Food and Agricultural Science and Technology (SEAFAST) shared how interested scientists can access possible funding and collaborations in the SEA-EU-NET and Ms. Margit Balzs of BAY-BIO, Hungary, shared their company’s insight on collaborations.
The American Society of Microbiology, through the initiative of the Philippine country representative, Dr. Esperanza C. Cabrera, also held a microbiology education workshop featuring taped lectures of microbiology educators of the ASM on the use of the MicrobeLibrary, a visual resources and protocols website for microbiology.
The convention was a whirlwind of lectures, posters and more lectures. The fellowship night featured a lively cheerdance competition among the PSM chapters. Before going home to their respective countries the foreign guests went for some R and R in Camiguin island or white water rafting along the CDO river. Hopefully new collaborations will sprout from these seeds that were sown in the city appropriately named the City of Golden Friendships.
