AFTER seven years, the Philippines and the United Kingdom has revived a partnership in science, this time through a two-day workshop on biosensors last October 25-26 at the Thomas Aquinas Research Complex.
The Philippines-United Kingdom scientific tie-up was started in 1986 by top British universities and UST’s College of Science and Faculty of Pharmacy.
The collaboration included faculty exchanges and grants in the fields of natural products, drug development and pharmacy from the British Embassy and British High Commission.
“A number of faculty members from UST were able to finish their higher degrees with this linkage but the University was not able to renew this linkage for quite some time,” Prof. Christina Binag, acting director of the UST Research Center for Natural Sciences told the Varsitarian.
Biosensors, said to be a “highly dynamic growth area in modern technology,” are cultured electrodes that can detect brain and muscle activity and eye movement.
The biosensors workshop was held through the efforts of College of Science Dean Fortunato Sevilla III, Binag said.
“It was Dean Sevilla who initiated the biosensor workshop at UST, while it was the Department of Science and Technology that invited the key persons to nominate topics for linkage,” said Binag.
The revival of the partnership through the two-day workshop should push universities and research institutions in the Philippines to start and develop their research on biosensors by establishing links with UK-based research institutions.
A total of 175 participants, mostly faculty members and researchers from various academic institutions in Manila, Northern Luzon, Iloilo, Samar, Cebu, and Davao, among others, attended the two-day seminar,
The workshop gathered speakers from the University of Cambridge, Cranfield University, University of Durham and Imperial College in the United Kingdom; the Institute of Microelectronics and Institute of Materials Research and Engineering in Singapore; and UST.
British Ambassador to the Philippines Peter Beckingham invited participants to apply for a Collaboration Development Award, which primarily aims to develop contacts and proposals for joint projects. It is also intended to support the development of collaboration between scientists and engineers in the United Kingdom and the Philippines in the field of biosensors.
