About us

Chona is one of the founders of Crabifier, in-charge of the genetic marker and image analysis system. She is also a faculty of the Biology Department. Through PGL, she has worked on the systematics of mangrove crabs, where they won an Outstanding Research & Development Award in 2015 for combining the use of molecular markers and image analysis to develop a semi-automated method of species identification for juveniles. Her other research interests are in population genetics and molecular biology. With more than 10 years as an educator, her advocacy is in the improvement of communications between the scientific community and other sectors of society. She holds a PhD in Biology from the De La Salle University, with a Fulbright dissertation grant to the University of Washington in Seattle. She also has a Master of Science degree in Environment and Natural Resource Management and a Bachelor of Science degree in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from the University of the Philippines.

Courtney is one of the founders of Crabifier, in-charge of developing the mobile app. She is also an Assistant Professor in the Software Technology Department in De La Salle University-Manila (DLSU-M). She graduated magna cum laude with an undergraduate degree of Computer Science with specialization in Software Technology in DLSU-M. Her undergraudate research with her groupmates on mobile indoor positioning garnered the Software Technology department's Most Outstanding Thesis Award, and subsequently joined as DLSU-M's three research project candidates for the Bank of the Philippine Islands-Department of Science and Technology Science Award 2012. She also obtained her Master's Degree in Computer Science in DLSU-M with research focusing on classifying pedestrian locomotion using inertial sensors in mobile phones. Her research interests are machine learning and deep learning.

Marcus is the latest app developer of Crabifier. Marcus is a Lasallian Graduate of Computer Science with a Specialization in Software Technology. He talks to pythons, sings in C or C#, doesn't drink hot java, and codes for food.

He's a freelance software engineer and web developer (not a Magician) and have worked with technologies like IOT and Machine Learning. In his downtime he joins hikes and plays football.

Karen is a research associate of the CrabTECH team, and an MS Environmental Science and Management student of DLSU. She has studied mangrove crabs for more than three years now with extensive experience in gene expression studies, particularly on the control of molting of the organism. She has collaborated with other MSc students in the Practical Genomics Laboratory to create an image analysis system for identifying the molt stage of juvenile crabs.

She is now assisting on the deployment of Crabifier, and will be assisting in the molecular verification of the app as well as in the Focused Group Discussions with various mangrove crab stakeholders. She is also managing the SYNERGY workshops of the CrabTECH team.

Kenneth is a research associate of the CrabTECH team, and an MS Biology student of DLSU. His work has allowed him to assess the impacts of pollution on natural systems, including the physiological alteration on water hyacinth and other plant species.

He is now assisting on the deployment of Crabifier, and will be assisting in the molecular verification of the app as well as in the logistics of the SYNERGY workshops of the team.

Dr. Menchie is the head of the Practical Genomics Laboratory and it is under her NSF-USAID-funded PEER Project "PhilFishConnect: Enhanced marine natural resource and biodiversity management in the Philippines by extending population connectivity research”, that the problem-solving system of Crabifier was developed. The app completed in its present iteration and deployed to mangrove crab as fishers under her DOST PCAARRD-funded project “Integrating Genomics with Image Analysis, GIS and Image Analysis for the Improved Rearing of Mud Crabs”. Dr. Menchie is also a full professor at the Biology Department of De La Salle University-Manila.