PROTEIN BIOCHEMISTRY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY LAB
PBBL aspires to discover and characterize biomolecules with interesting properties and understand their structure, properties, and reactivity. We hope our discoveries will ultimately find applications in health, drug discovery, and functional biomaterials.
PBBL conducts research across a wide range of scientific disciplines, encompassing biochemistry, molecular biology, and mass spectrometry. We also aspire to train the next-generation Filipino biochemists who will be future researchers in our country.
Lab Updates and Announcements
Renz defended his MS Thesis
July 31, 2024
Renz Carpina (MS Chemistry) has successfully defended his MS Thesis. His thesis is titled " In vitro and in silico approaches in the characterization of a bifunctional xylanase/acetylxylan esterase from Teredinibacter turnerae T7901."
PBBL at the 2024 College of Science Recognition Program
July 27, 2024
Aidan Resoles (MS Marine Science), Lyle De Guzman (MS Chemistry), and Dr. Eiza Yu during the 2024 College of Science Recognition Program. Not in the photo are fellow graduates from PBBL, Joyce Garcia (MS Chemistry) and Isobel Suba (BS Chemistry).
Aidan defended his MS Thesis
June 13, 2024
Aidan Resoles (MS Marine Science) has successfully defended his MS Thesis. His thesis is titled "Neuropeptide profiling of commercially important sea cucumbers."
Lyle defended her MS Thesis
May 21, 2024
Lyle De Guzman (MS Chemistry) defended her MS Thesis "Enzyme mixtures from Teredinibacter turnerae for efficient cellulose hydrolysis". She presented her work last May 21, 2024, at 1 PM in the ChemRez room, Institute of Chemistry.
Eiza gives a talk in IB
March 11, 2024
Eiza shares the group's outputs from the recently concluded DOST PCAARRD project on High-value biomolecules from Stichopus horrens in a webinar hosted by the Asian Society of Natural Products
Joyce defends her MS Thesis
Jan 18, 2024
Joyce has successfully defended her thesis entitled De Novo Sequencing of Venomic Peptides. For her MS thesis, she created TxNovo, a program that tries to assign peptide sequences (de novo) from tandem MS spectra. She is advised by Eiza Yu and Giovanni Tapang from the National Institute of Physics.
Eiza Yu presents at the MSI@50 Lecture Series
December 18, 2023
Eiza gave a lecture entitled Advancing Biotechnology in the Philippines: Revealing Molecular Diversity in Marine Life through Biochemistry and Omics Research last December 18, 2023, at the UP MSI AVR. She presented the current work of PBBL involving the sea cucumber Sticophus horrens and the shipworm endosymbiont Teredinibacter turnerae.
The full lecture was streamed live on the UP MSI Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=2073938099636410
PBBL joins 50th PSBMB
Nov 29-30, 2023
Members of PBBL attended the 50th Annual Convention of the Philippine Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Aidan, Joan, Lyle, and Renz presented posters of their research work.
PBBL joins 4th CS GSRC
Nov 13, 2023
PBBL graduate students win awards at the 4th GSRC! Aidan Resoles (MS Marine Science) and Renz Carpina (MS Chemistry) were chosen by their respective institutes to give talks on their thesis projects. Aidan talked about his work on S. horrens neuropeptidomics, while Renz's talk was on the characterization of a multidomain protein from T. turnerae. Lyle De Guzman's poster on T. turnerae secretome proteomics was chosen as one of the awardees for best poster.
Sea cucumber papers out soon!
Nov 8, 2023
Two papers from the Stichopus Biomolecules Project were accepted for publication. Our collagen work together with Marlon Conato and Kim Sisican was published in ACS Omega. The metabolomics work, which includes Zen Torreno's MS thesis was accepted in PLOS One. This paper is coauthored with SMPL's Ralph Molino and Yas Junio.
Eiza in ParSU
October 5-9, 2023
Eiza joins other MSI faculty and RAs in a weeklong workshop at Partido State University in Caramoan, Camarines Sur. Eiza also joined fieldwork with the IBR and the Marine Phycology Lab.
PBBL holds in-house mass spectrometry workshop
August 26, 2023
PBBL lab members attend an intensive two-day workshop on mass spectrometry! Recent graduate Zen Torreno facilitated the workshop, teaching current members how to do peak deconvolution, proteomics and metabolomics data analysis. The PBBL group was joined by some members of the MSI-IBR lab the the NIMBB- MEL lab.
PBBL alums join CS Recognition Program
July 30, 2023
PBBL alums Zen Torreno, Zabrina Malto and Jeffrey Diaz are now MS Chemistry graduates! Joining them in the picture are Jokent Gaza (Good Vibes Lab) and Klidel Rellin (SMPL). Janella Borromeo, Hanz Salvacion, and Jaz Serrano also graduated BS Chemistry, all with Latin honors. Congratulations!
Zen will defend his MS Thesis
May 22, 2023
Zen Torreno (MS Chemistry) will defend his MS Thesis "Discovery and Characterization of Saponins from the Philippine Sea Cucumber Stichopus horrens". Please join us on May 22, 2023, at 10 AM in the ChemRez room, Institute of Chemistry. Zen is co-advised by Eiza Yu and Yas Junio.
Zen and Eiza attend MS Congress in Singapore
May 8-10, 2023
Finally, members of PBBL were able to attend their first international conference since the pandemic. Zen presented a poster on the metabolomes of S. horrens from different geographic regions in the Philippines.
Zab will defend her MS Thesis
May 8, 2023
Zab Malto (MS Chemistry) will defend her MS Thesis "Comparative biochemical analysis of the vegetative and pellicle cyst forms of the HAB-causative dinoflagellate Pyrodinium bahamense". Please join us on May 8, 2023, at 1 PM in the ChemRez room, Institute of Chemistry. Zab is co-advised by Lilibeth Salvador-Reyes and Eiza Yu.
Renz goes to GIST for an internship!
April 2023
Renz Carpina is one of the recipients of the Global Intern Program of the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST). He will spend 2 months in GIST, South Korea for a fully-funded internship. He will work in the Structure-Function Discovery Lab under the supervision of Prof. Hyungwook Kim.
Erle Peralta defended his MS Thesis
January 07, 2021
Erle Peralta has successfully defended his MS in Chemistry thesis. His work is entitled "Pigments from Endophytic Fungi and Their Potential as Alternatives to Synthetic Dyes." Congratulations, Erle!
Ericka Itang's work published in Marine Drugs
October 01, 2020
Ericka Itang's paper based on her MS thesis was published in Marine Drugs. She is a research associate and alumna of the lab (MS Chemistry, 2019). See link below for the full text. Congratulations, Ericka!
PBBL moves to The Marine Science Institute
The Protein Biochemistry and Biotechnology Laboratory is now housed at The Marine Science Institute.