THE DE LA SALLE University has inaugurated a drug discovery program two years after its planning and conceptualization.

The university’s Central Instrumentation Facility and Chemistry department launched Phase 1 of the ‘Tuklas Lunas Fellowship for Natural Products Research’ which was funded by the Department of Science and Technology through its Philippine Council for Health Research and Development research grant.

“The Tuklas Lunas Program was established to pursue drug discovery and development by leveraging on the country’s very own biodiversity. It aims to harness the potential of the country’s own resources under two tracks: the herbal and drug tracks,” the university said.

The project, it added, “will help strengthen the capacities of both researchers and the local industry in drug discovery and development.”

Under the program, the capacity of researchers in the regional Tuklas Lunas Centers will also be enhanced.

Fifteen fellows from universities across the country were accepted to the program and they will undergo training under DLSU experts in the fields of Chemistry for Natural Products, NMR Spectroscopy for Natural Products and Chromatographic Techniques for Natural Products with Chemometrics and Metabolomics.

“After reinforcing their theoretical foundations this term, the fellows along with our esteemed set of mentors will be utilizing the CIF’s 600 MHz NMR Spectrometer, Preparative HPLC, QTOF LC/MS, and the GC/MS with Headspace Autosampler for their research in the next phase of the project,” the university said.

The universities included in the program are the Mariano Marcos State University, Cagayan State University, Benguet State University, Central Luzon State University, Bicol University, University of Eastern Philippines, University of the Immaculate Concepcion, and University of Southern Mindanao.