Updates

The CrabTECH team is proud to announce that the SYNERGY workshops have already begun. These workshops aim to teach young scientists, educators at the tertiary and secondary levels, and members of the LGU basic and low cost techniques of DNA barcoding, as well as the fundamental techniques of Machine Learning and Python programming.

The first workshop was held last September 4, 2019 at the De La Salle University through the new DOST-PCAARRD project of the team. The workshop was also supported by the College of Science's Research and Advanced Studies section and MRL Cybertec Corporation.

The latest iteration of Crabifier is launched to stakeholders and members of the press last July 8, 2019 at the De La Salle University. The event showcased technologies for biodiversity conservation including another application called BioMon from the Center for Conservation Innovations. In attendance were representatives from DOST-PCAARRD, USAID, SEAFDEC and conservation groups in the country. Read more about the launch HERE.

Crabifier is now in the listings of GrowAsia Digital Directory so that it can reach a greater audience and get a wider feedback for improvements. View the listing HERE.

Grow Asia was established by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with the ASEAN Secretariat. They bring together companies, governments, and NGOs to help the 100 million smallholder farmers in Southeast Asia improve their livelihoods through access to information, knowledge, markets and finance. Visit their site HERE.

The problem-solving system behind Crabifier is one step closer to being patented as the Invention Publication has been released last January 21, 2019 in the 22nd Volume (no. 8) of the technology publications of the Intellectual Property Center of the Philippines.

The filing of the documents was facilitated with the assistance of the Innovation and Technology Office.

The De La Salle University's Innovation and Technology (DITECH) Fair featured Crabifier in the 2018 exhibit with a theme of "Green Technologies and Social Impact". This was held at the Corazon Aquino Democratic Space last November 22-23, 2018 and featured various innovations made by students and faculty from the Senior High level to the Graduate level.

The technology behind Crabifier was showcased in five interactive posters (See each one here: Poster 1, Poster 2, Poster 3, Poster 4 and Poster 5) where participants are enjoined to use similar technologies tried out by the founders, including calipers and rulers, basic phone cameras, and finally the Crabifier app itself.

In the 2018 DLSU Research Congress, with a theme of "Building Impact on Firm Foundations: From Basics to Applications", the Practical Genomics Laboratory (PGL) showcased the Crabifier in an interactive exhibit with live crablets. The Congress was held last June 20-22, 2018 at the Henry Sy Sr. Hall of the DLSU Manila Campus.

With the transition to the use of Convolutional Neural Networks in the backbones of Crabifier, the latest iteration of the system was tested on thousands of harvested juvenile mangrove crabs collected from Bicol, Quezon and Iligan.

The latest version was able to accommodate the incessant movement of the juveniles as well as altered orientation due to movement of the organisms. The app now has an 87.8% accuracy rate and confirmed expectations that majority of crablets from Bicol and Quezon are Scylla serrata while Scylla olivacea dominated the wild populations in Iligan.

The segregation and documentation was held at the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) Freshwater Station in Binangonan, Rizal.

The problem-solving system behind Crabifier that involves the use of genetic markers and image analysis has been published in the journal Aquaculture last April 1, 2018 in Volume 491, pp. 205-209. For interested readers, you may find the whole article HERE.

One of the goals of the Practical Genomics Laboratory (PGL) is to democratize molecular biology techniques. Since the development of Crabifier required the extraction of DNA and amplification of genetic sequences of thousands upon thousands of mangrove crabs, the PGL has discovered efficient low-cost alternatives to published techniques. This was summarized, together with things to avoid and generic recipes of common molecular biology reagents, in the book DNA Barcoding for Marine Organisms. The book is available for purchase through the DLSU Publishing House. Visit their website HERE.

Improvements in the speed of processing of the mobile app, now officially named Crabifier, allowed the Practical Genomics Laboratory (PGL) to do field-testing. From Aug. 31 to September 6, 2017, members of the PGL including Ms. Courtney Ngo, one of the founders, Ms. Biena Joaquin and Mr. Gerald Irigan, mounted an expedition to the northernmost tip of the Philippines in Buguey, Cagayan. This town is declared as the Mangrove Crab Capital of the Philippines, and some of the largest recorded catches were done in this town.

With contacts from the Local Government Units, including the Town Mayor Lloyd Antiporda, Dr. Danilo Rumpon, the Municipal Agriculturist, and a bevy of mangrove crab fishers, the group proceeded to teach the fishers how to use the app, experience how to catch both juvenile and adult mangrove crabs, and get the feedback on stakeholders from the ground.

This experience has re-shaped the direction of the technologies being developed by the PGL and close communications with the community has since been maintained.

As part of the celebrations for the 6th anniversary of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD) , the mobile app for species identification of juvenile mangrove crabs was featured. The display was manned by Chona Camille Abeledo, one of the founders, Chesca Laguna and Gerald Irigan. The display included an interactive display that allowed viewers to use the app as well as a live video showing how the application works.

Founder of Crabifier, Chona Camille VinceCruz-Abeledo, successfully defended her PhD dissertation on the Morphological and Molecular Characterization of Scylla species in the Philippines. Apart from the problem-solving system behind Crabifier, her dissertation also included a revision on the dichotomous key for adult mangrove crabs and the population genetic structure of Scylla in the Philippines.

The head of the Practical Genomics Laboratory (PGL), Dr. Ma. Carmen Ablan-Lagman, was one of the featured speakers at the 2016 TEDx talks done at the De La Salle University. Here she talked about how passion for service drives research that benefits target audiences, and how some of the outputs of the PGL - including Crabifier - are aimed to help the local agricultural industries and fisheries.

The Practical Genomics Laboratory (PGL) is once more included in the celebrations of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) this time featuring the mangrove crab outputs during the 12th National Biotechnology Week. Apart from featuring the mobile application for juvenile species identification, temperature vulnerability maps, molt stage determination, temperature response of different crab populations and genetic characterization of sex phenotypes were also showcased.

The Practical Genomics Laboratory (PGL) discussed major outputs on their mud crab or mangrove crab project during the 1st National Mud Crab Congress held at the Diversion 21 Hotel in Iloilo City from Nov. 16-18, 2015. This event was organized by SEAFDEC and had the theme "Philippines: In the forefront of the mud crab industry development".

Members of the PGL, including Ms. Chona Camille VinceCruz, Ms. Karen Camille Perez and Mr. Louey Ilustre, talked about findings related to population genetic structure, the transcriptomics of temperature response and the juvenile species identification method. The group was able to gather volunteer fishers from all over the Philippines to test out the species identification app that was being developed.

Updates on the image analysis of the crab shells resulted to a semi-automated method of species identification. This improved technique was presented at the 13th National Symposium in Marine Science held on October 22-24, 2015 at General Santos City. This conference was organized by the Philippine Association of Marine Science. The goal of the app to help achieve sustainability in mangrove crab fisheries fit the theme of the conferece for the year which was "Moving Towards Resilient Marine Ecosystems".

In the process of developing the mobile application for the species identification system, it was tested out during the harvest season of the Dumangas Brackishwater Station of the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) in Iloilo, Philippines. Recommendations for improvement include independence from an internet source, a simpler graphic user interface and quicker turn around time for the species identification.

The simple system of image analysis combined with the use of genetic marker technology landed the Practical Genomics Laboratory (PGL) the top prize for the Emerging Categories Division in the 2015 Outstanding Research and Development Awards of the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD). The potential use of this technology in the field of aquaculture and its possible applications to other species fit the theme of the year, which was "Convergence of Technology and Business."

The first iteration of the problem-solving system of Crabifier was initially presented at the 14th National Genetics Symposium at the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) in Iloilo, Philippines. This symposium was organized by Philippine Society for the Advancement of Genetics, Inc. (PhilSAGEN) and the theme for year was “Genomics in Agriculture and Health for a Better Philippines”.

This presentation allowed the team to learn more about the actual needs of the mangrove crab community as SEAFDEC Iloilo is one of the major hubs for research on the mangrove crab industry.