News & Announcements

By Harvey Sapigao



According to the World Health Organization, prostate cancer is the third most common type of cancer among Filipino men. In 2022, almost 10,000 Filipino men were diagnosed with the disease. In serious cases, the disease can develop into an aggressive type called castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Some further progress into the most aggressive form, neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC), where standard treatments no longer work and it becomes the most fatal of all prostate cancers.

In a pioneering study, Romie Angelo Azur, Kevin Christian Olarte, Weand Ybañez, Alessandria Maeve Ocampo, and Dr. Pia Bagamasbad of the UP Diliman College of Science National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (UPD-CS NIMBB) identified and described a key protein that contributes to the progression of prostate cancer into NEPC, elucidating the molecular basis of the disease and paving the way for identifying novel treatments.

Prostate cancer depends on male sex hormones, or androgens, to grow. When the prostate cancer cells don’t have access to androgens, their development is stunted. This is why androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is the standard treatment for the disease.

Over time, however, the cancer cells can mutate in ways that enable them to develop without the need for androgens. This advanced type is resistant to ADT and may develop into the most aggressive form, the NEPC. Dr. Bagamasbad and her team discovered that a protein called CYB561 is pivotal for the progression, growth, and survival of aggressive, treatment-resistant prostate cancer cells.

“CYB561 has a dual role in driving cancer,” said Dr. Bagamasbad. “It activates specific growth factors and manages iron levels, both of which appear to help the cancer thrive and grow even when deprived of the male hormones it usually depends on.”

Using publicly available data from prostate tumors and experimental findings from human cell culture lines, they discovered that CYB561 is more prevalent in CRPC and NEPC cells than in normal prostate cancer cells. When they depleted CYB561, the prostate cancer cells became more sensitive to enzalutamide, a common ADT drug, suggesting that the protein provides some resistance to the drug.

Furthermore, they found that CYB561 converts iron into a more active form essential for various cell processes, including supporting the growth of aggressive forms of cancer. As such, the cancer cells require higher iron levels, and CYB561 seems to help maintain the needed active iron concentration. Knocking down the protein lowered active iron levels in NEPC cells, delayed the progression of CRPC to NEPC, and dampened the highly aggressive behavior of NEPC cells.

The findings of their study, now published in PLOS One, can help develop new therapies for CRPC and NEPC. “By understanding the role of CYB561 in prostate cancer,” said Dr. Bagamasbad, “we have not only gained a deeper understanding of how prostate cancer develops drug resistance but we have also potentially identified a new target for future treatments, paving the way for novel therapies that could specifically inhibit CYB561’s activity to slow down or stop cancer progression.”

In the future, Dr. Bagamasbad and her team hope to experiment on animal models and primary tumor samples. They also plan to examine whether Filipinos have higher risks of developing CRPC and NEPC, and if CYB561 contributes to the aggressiveness of the disease. “More importantly, we need to identify other key players involved and establish a drug screening platform that can mechanistically target CYB561 activity,” Dr. Bagamasbad concluded.

For interview requests and other concerns, please contact [email protected].

References:

Azur RAG, Olarte KCV, Ybañez WS, Ocampo AMM, Bagamasbad PD (2024) CYB561 supports the neuroendocrine phenotype in castration-resistant prostate cancer. PLOS ONE 19(5): e0300413. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0300413

Ferlay J, Ervik M, Lam F, Laversanne M, Colombet M, Mery L, Piñeros M, Znaor A, Soerjomataram I, Bray F (2024). Global Cancer Observatory: Cancer Today. Lyon, France: International Agency for Research on Cancer. Available from: https://gco.iarc.who.int/today, accessed 15 July 2024.

By: Eunice Jean C. Patron

With a significant number of marine mammals stranded in the Philippines over the past years, it is within the scope of local government units (LGUs) to address this pressing concern, scientists from the University of the Philippines – Diliman College of Science (UPD-CS) indicated in a recent study that encompasses data from the past almost two decades.

Dr. Lemnuel Aragones, Alessandra Nicole Morado, and Honey Leen Laggui of the Institute of Environmental Science & Meteorology (IESM), along with Dr. Marie Christine Obusan of the Institute of Biology (IB), Dr. Jonah Bondoc of the Natural Sciences Research Institute (NSRI), and Dr. Leo Suarez of Ocean Adventure and Ewen Lawler of University of Canberra, assessed the changes in marine mammal strandings in the Philippines over space and time, as well as the types of species that got stranded in Philippine territory from 2005 to 2022.

Marine mammal strandings and the role of LGUs

A marine mammal stranding occurs when a marine mammal is found on seashores or in shallow waters and cannot return to deeper waters on its own. The researchers mapped the stranding hotspots in the Philippines, representing areas where standing frequencies are relatively high, and designed the hotspots to identify designated LGUs to inform them about the implications of the strandings for marine mammal conservation and management. With the help of the hotspots, concerned LGUs can also be proactive in addressing marine mammal strandings. A total of 35 LGU hotspots for strandings were identified in this study. The majority of these stranding hotspots were located in Luzon (with 24 hotspots), particularly in Regions 1 and 2.

“Strandings can be of natural causes, but when marine mammals with good body condition strand, we have to worry because it could imply that they are in trouble. It is possible that their habitat is compromised in various ways – most likely from human activities such as pollution and overexploitation of our key marine resources,” explained Dr. Aragones, who also serves as the president of the Philippine Marine Mammal Stranding Network (PMMSN).

While natural causes such as tropical monsoons and oceanographic factors can affect marine mammal strandings, the study emphasized that fisheries production and fisheries interaction are major contributors to the stranding frequencies of these mammals. This can occur through fishing equipment that increases the chances of entanglement or various illegal fishing activities, such as dynamite fishing.

“We recommend that LGUs and concerned regional offices establish their own stranding response team and rehabilitation tank and eradicate illegal fishing activities in their area by providing appropriate crew and patrol boats,” the researchers stated in their study. They also emphasized the importance of information, education, and communication (IEC) campaigns regarding marine mammals and regulating fishers and their fishing gear. By institutionalizing these programs, LGUs and concerned regional offices will help sustain their implementation.

Their study also revealed that the species most frequently stranded in Philippine waters were spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris) with 218 strandings, dugongs (Dugong dugon) with 104 strandings, Risso’s dolphins (Grampus griseus) with 100 strandings, Fraser’s dolphins (Lagenodelphis hosei) with 95 strandings, and melon-headed whales (Peponocephala electra) with 89 strandings. By establishing a ‘species stranding status,’ an index of the impacts of stranding on these already vulnerable and endangered species, this study has introduced an important additional key factor in assessing species conservation status by concerned agencies.

Generating more research on stranded marine mammals

Knowing the species—particularly identifying their genetics and genomics—is important for ensuring the proper management of stranded marine mammals. This is the focus of the new ongoing studies by Dr. Aragones and his colleagues.

“We should determine the main causes of strandings. Since we suspect that dynamite blasts can cause strandings, we want to understand the acoustics of marine mammals,” elaborated Dr. Aragones. “We also like to examine the impact of fisheries on our marine mammals, to identify what types of fishing gears can entangle them, and the bycatch rates as well.”

Their findings underscore the importance of continuing and advancing monitoring efforts for marine mammal strandings, given the inevitable impacts of human activities such as increasing population, illegal fishing, pollution, and climate change. The evidence-based results provided by this study can guide stranded hotspot LGUs and concerned regional offices in managing and conserving Philippine marine resources, including marine mammals.

For interview requests and other concerns, please contact [email protected].

References:

Aragones, L. V., Morado, A. N., Obusan, M. C., Laggui, H. L., Bondoc, J. L., Suarez, L. J., & Lawler, E. K. (2024). Spatiotemporal variation of stranded marine mammals in the Philippines from 2005 to 2022: Latest stranding hotspots and species stranding status. Aquatic Mammals, 50(4), 302-322. https://doi.org/10.1578/am.50.4.2024.302

By: Eunice Jean C. Patron

Albeit disheartening, scientists said the death of a stranded dolphin is not entirely a setback during the “Cetacean Pathology Training and Workshop: Pathogenesis of Common Diseases in Stranded Dolphins,” held on June 24, 2024, at the University of the Philippines – Diliman College of Science’s Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology (UPD-CS IESM), Marine Mammal Research and Conservation Laboratory (MMRCL).

The workshop aimed to equip veterinarians with the proper practices and skills for documenting and collecting information about dolphin diseases, ensuring that a dolphin’s death contributes to deepening knowledge about these diseases. It was organized by the MMRCL of IESM, the Microbial Ecology of Terrestrial and Aquatic Systems Laboratory (METAS Lab) of the UPD-CS Institute of Biology (IB), the Philippine Marine Mammal Stranding Network (PMMSN), the Veterinary Practitioners Association of the Philippines (VPAP), and the Philippine Veterinary Medical Association (PVMA).

“We conduct these sorts of training to build the capacity of local government units (LGUs) and concerned agencies in their marine mammal rehabilitation and post-mortem response,” said IESM professor and MMRCL head, Dr. Lemnuel Aragones, who is also the president of PMMSN.

Data presented in the workshop show that human activities, particularly underwater noise pollution such as blasts, significantly impact dolphins. Dr. Leo Jonathan Suarez, PMMSN treasurer and Head of Veterinary Services at Ocean Adventure, mentioned that apart from body tissue injury, blasts can also cause acoustic trauma. “The ear has the most sensitive tissues for pressure-induced damage,” he pointed out. “An adult may not experience or sustain injury from the blast itself. But, of course, the sound travels really far. So, they may actually suffer the consequences of the explosion through that sound.”

As Dr. Suarez showed several examples of suspected acoustic trauma cases, he reiterated that deaf dolphins can survive, yet they will slowly suffer due to hearing loss. “If they cannot echolocate, they cannot find and catch food. They cannot avoid predators. They cannot navigate. They cannot communicate. So basically, all of their skills and abilities to live in the wild are removed,” he added.

Focusing on studies of marine mammal diseases, PMMSN advisory member Dr. Christopher Torno, who mentioned that dolphin deaths are not truly failures, highlighted the importance of dolphin disease knowledge. “Sometimes when people talk about these things, take it with a grain of salt. Tignan niyo rin. As much as possible, I try to superimpose what I’ve learned. And you should too. ‘Yung mga templates natin sa pathology na you might think are useless, they are very useful,” he expounded.

Dr. Torno also reminded the workshop participants to double-check the dolphin’s organs when investigating the cause of its death, even if suspicions already exist. He shared how he has made mistakes during necropsies, illustrating that veterinarians can learn a lot about dolphin diseases through these examinations. ‘The information you’re bringing us will benefit not just you, but this entire network. We’re learning from this, and I’m so happy I can share it with you,’ he said.

Dr. Marie Christine Obusan, an IB professor and one of the heads of the METAS Lab, emphasized the need for more research on dolphin rehabilitation response. “Our country represents one-third of the world’s cetacean diversity,” she explained. “And there is an increasing trend of stranding events over the years.”

As a scientist mainly focused on assessing samples from marine mammal stranding events, Dr. Obusan shared her experiences working with veterinarians in the field. “I’m very appreciative of the inputs I’m getting from different experts and being mentored by different veterinarians,” she said, underscoring how collaborations with people from various fields and expertise, as well as citizens themselves, can be helpful in better understanding marine mammals such as dolphins.

Veterinarians from different LGUs across the Philippines, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), state universities and colleges (SUCs), and private veterinary clinics participated in the workshop. After the morning session lectures by the speakers, the participating veterinarians conducted a dolphin necropsy in the MMRCL room during the afternoon session.

The workshop organizers have also collaborated on other medical management training programs for marine mammals. “The need never ends, as we know that the frequency of strandings continues to increase through the years,” Dr. Aragones mentioned. “We focus on topics we believe are lacking or needed to enhance local capacities.”

Dr. Aragones and his team will soon release a scientific paper detailing marine mammal strandings in the Philippines from 2005 to 2022.

For interview requests and other media inquiries, please contact: [email protected]

The already strong partnership between the UP Manila College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and UP Manila College of Arts and Sciences Alumni Society, Inc. (UPMCASASI) became even more durable through the inking of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on May 7, 2024 at the UP Manila CAS Little Theater.

Signing the MOU on behalf of their offices were UPMCASASI President Nanet Tanyag and UP Manila CAS Dean Maria Constancia Carrillo. Witnesses present included Dr. Valerie Tiempo-Guinto of the Office of Alumni Relations, and members of UPMCASASI namely, Atty. Jito Arreza, Butch Madarang, and Roger Cuan.

The MOU aims to further strengthen the creation of student-aid programs and services as well as to foster a better learning environment in CAS.

Source: University of the Philippines Manila Facebook

By Harvey Sapigao

Neutrons, when plucked from the nucleus of atoms, become unstable and decay after some time. Physicists know that these unstable neutrons die after about 14 minutes, but they cannot pinpoint the exact seconds in which the neutrons last, even as today’s experiments are at their most precise.

This problem, known as the neutron lifetime anomaly, arises because two different but equally rigorous experimental methods – the beam method and the bottle method – produce different results. A popular reason is that some undiscovered phenomenon might be at play.

But Dr. Denny Lane Sombillo of the UP Diliman College of Science National Institute of Physics (UPD-CS NIP) thinks the explanation may lie in how time behaves at a quantum level. “If this [theory] is correct,” he said, “we don’t need to modify the known physics and simply focus on the nature of time in quantum mechanics.”

Dr. Sombillo’s theory involves a separate problem called the quantum time of arrival (QTOA) problem. His theory is built upon the works of Dr. Eric Galapon of UPD-CS NIP. By employing Einstein’s concept of causality in Dr. Galapon’s work, Dr. Sombillo provides an intuitive picture of the quantum time of arrival problem, one that can be used to explain other mysteries such as the neutron lifetime anomaly.

Time of Arrival in Classical vs. Quantum Mechanics

In classical mechanics, a car traveling at 40 kilometers per hour will arrive at the destination 40 kilometers away in exactly one hour. So long as the speed of the car and the distance to the destination do not change, we can be sure that the car’s time of arrival will always be one hour.

A different story emerges in quantum mechanics. An atom traveling at some speed will reach its destination – say, a detector – after some time. However, a weird quirk of an atom is that we can prepare its exact position or exact speed, but not both at the same time. That is, we can prepare it with an exact speed, but we cannot set how far away it is from the detector, and vice-versa. As a result, we cannot be sure of the atom’s time of arrival; we can only know the probability of it arriving after a certain time.

This feature called the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, owes its weirdness to the duality of atoms as both a wave and a particle. Naturally, atoms are clouds of probabilities with no definite properties, much like the ambiguity of a wave. When measured or prepared, however, atoms instantaneously acquire exact properties, much like the distinctness of a particle.

Dr. Galapon’s theory on QTOA posits that right after the atom is prepared, it collapses into a specific type of wave. After some time, this wave will evolve and turn into a particle. This process is aptly named the Galapon collapse mechanism (GCM).

Employing Causality

However, Dr. Sombillo noticed that the theory allows for a situation where the atom instantaneously arrives at the detector. That is, the atom can “teleport” to the detector, rendering no time to travel, which is physically impossible. This also violates the concept of causality, which states that one event (a cause) must first happen before another event (an effect).

“You can think of causality as the proper ordering of events,” Dr. Sombillo explained. In the traveling atom, for example, the proper order of events would be that the atom must be prepared first (a cause) before appearing at the detector (an effect). That is, the atom should not be detected by the detector if it has not yet been prepared.

Dr. Galapon’s theory allows for the reversed ordering of events where the detection of the atom precedes its preparation. “Intuitively, this reversed ordering should not be in the theory, but it is not easy to identify this loophole using mathematics alone,” Dr. Sombillo said. “One needs to evaluate the physical implications of the formalism.”

By employing causality, Dr. Sombillo and his collaborator, Dr. Neris Sombillo of Ateneo de Manila University, were able to fix the issue. “We found that the instantaneous arrival time can be removed if we impose causality in the formulation of the time of arrival operator theory,” he said. “Even if we remove the causality-violating part, the quantum correction to time remains.” Their improved formulations can now be used to explain physical phenomena such as the neutron lifetime anomaly.

Neutron Lifetime Anomaly

When an unstable neutron dies, it changes into a proton, emitting an electron and antineutrino. But exactly how long before this process happens is still unknown. The beam experiment suggests that the unstable neutron lasts an average of 14 minutes and 48 seconds, while the bottle experiment suggests 14 minutes and 39 seconds – a nine-second difference.

Dr. Sombillo believes that the difference comes from how the neutrons are initially prepared, which would have affected their lifetime. Just like in the quantum time of arrival problem where the atom’s particle-like state affects how it will evolve into a wave, the neutron’s initial state affects how it will decay.

The beam and bottle experiment, he theorizes, sets the neutrons with dissimilar quantum characteristics. Plugging these values into his equations on quantum time of arrival would result in different neutron lifetimes, accounting for the discrepancy in the experiments.

Now published in Physics Letters A, their paper is the first to merge causality and the quantum time of arrival problem, as well as use it to explain the neutron lifetime anomaly. “Our work is the only proposal that presents the anomaly as a quantum correction to a time observable,” Dr. Sombillo said. “The paper laid the foundation for future work on the neutron lifetime anomaly using the theory of quantum arrival.”

While their work is still at its preliminary stage, he said that they intend to pursue a more thorough investigation of the quantum time theory in the future. Before transitioning as a nuclear physicist, Dr. Sombillo was part of the quantum time operator research group of UPD-CS NIP. He later learned about the neutron lifetime anomaly and how it might relate to the quantum time of arrival problem after his transition.

For interview requests and other media inquiries, please contact:
UPD-CS Science Communications
📧 [email protected]

M.N. Taganap



The University of the Philippines Visayas University Library, under the leadership of Ms. Analiza Galang-Linaugo, University Librarian, recently received four boxes containing 451 books from UP Diliman alumni, Mr. and Ms. Joe and Patria Rivera. The donation includes novels, fiction books, non-fiction books, storybooks for children, and picture books.

The University Library will include the donated fiction books in the new library corner dedicated to fiction enthusiasts. The new building of the University Library will soon feature the library corner. The donation contributes to the growing collection of the library, giving its patrons a wide range of learning, research, and leisure reading resources.

The Filipino Canadian couple, based in Toronto, Ontario also donated 527 library materials in 2022. Patria, also known as Patty, is an accomplished poet and writer with published poetry books and chapbooks that received recognition abroad. One of her written works is Rare Species, a poem that bagged second prize in the Eric Hill Award of Poetic Excellence in 2005.

Patria generously donated copies of her poetry books to the University Library. The books are Puti/White (Finalist, 2006 Trillium Book Award for Poetry), The Time Between, The Bride Anthology, and Be. The husband of Patty, Joe, is a retired lawyer and blogger turned painter whose artworks depict social realism. Various galleries in Canada have displayed the artworks of Joe, such as in the Asian Heritage multimedia exhibit at Toronto City Hall.

Patria is a UP graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, while Joe completed a Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration. Their support and love for books are evident through their continued contributions to the University Library. (With sources from the Philippine Canadian News)

Source: https://www.upv.edu.ph/index.php/news/upv-university-library-receives-books-from-poet-and-artist-alumni