The Philippine Council for Health and Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (PCHRD-DOST) awarded the country’s first Tuklas Lunas Center to the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) during the DOST’s 30th anniversary last March 16, 2012.

Tuklas Lunas is the drug discovery and development program initiated by DOST-PCHRD to provide solutions to the country’s medical needs. Through the Council’s Natural Substance Research Program, the PCHRD aims to establish a Drug Discovery database which will store information on all researches conducted on natural products. Information here will guide researchers to discover species that have the potentials for drugs. With the development of the database, the Council will set up three Tuklas Lunas Centers in Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.

For Mindanao, the PCHRD-NSRC Selection Board chose the MSU-IIT to host the DOST-PCHRF Natural Substance Research Center. The Center is expected to encourage cooperation and collaborative researches among nearby universities and research institutions. Joint efforts should facilitate the discovery of potential drug sources in endemic terrestrial and marine species in Mindanao.

Enthused Dr. Antonio D. Ligsay, Chief of the Research and Development Management Division of PCHRD: “The awarding is just the start of an effort to harness the natural resources of our country in a bid to strengthen the drug discovery and development campaign of PCHRD. Towards 2016, PCHRD along with the chosen Natural Substance Research Centers will continuously push boundaries to develop new drugs that will benefit the Filipino people in a long run.”

(Repost from http://www.msuiit.edu.ph/news/news-detail.php?id=389)