Pinoy scientist battles world's top killer disease

Filipino scientist Dr. Cymbeline Tancongco Culiat Photo courtesy of Nell One Therapeutics Inc.MANILA, Philippines - In 2005, cardiovascular diseases that include heart attacks and strokes killed about 17.5 million people. This is 30 percent of global deaths, according to the World Health Organization, and the numbers aren't dwindling.

But if all things go well, a Filipino scientist may triumph over the world’s top killer.

Dr Cymbeline Tancongco Culiat is seeing to it that the trend ends soon so that people around the world suffering from these diseases will be given the chance to lead normal lives.

Her groundbreaking research into molecular genetics can potentially change the face of medicine. Dr Tancongco Culiat is the lead researcher of NellOne Therapeutics Inc., a regenerative medicine company launched this month. The firm seeks to develop treatment and restoration of muscles damaged by heart attacks.

“The promise of restoring both normal tissue mass and function comes from leveraging a critical natural cell growth and maturation pathway," said Dr Tancongco Culiat in an article for Battelle Ventures, one of the companies funding the research.

“It’s not just cell regrowth that is important, but also the way cells are organized to support organ function."

It is a daunting task—there is currently no medicine that can do what Dr Tancongco Culiat seeks to achieve.

“Current approaches, such as those based on stem cells, have shown the potential to restore tissue mass, but with only limited recovery of function," said acting NellOne CEO and Battelle Vantures General Partner Tracy Warren in the same article.

Heart attacks are usually recurrent, so if Dr Tancongco Culiat succeeds in her new undertaking, the product of her research will be the first medicine in the market that can do the most improvement to damaged heart tissues.

The potential is massive, and major institutions have invested an initial $1.5 million to fund Dr Tancongco Culiat’s work. NellOne Therapeutics, Inc. is a joint venture of Battelle Ventures, the University of Tennessee, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) which is under the United States Department of Energy.

JOANNA CAMILLE SISANTE, GMANews.TV

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PCG: China’s bullying in West Philippine Sea undermines international law --- Ghio Ong - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — Letting China sustain its aggression in the West Philippine Sea would make other countries doubt the strength of international law currently being asserted by the Philippines, Commodore Jay Tarriela of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said. “Allowing China to blatantly disregard the established rules-based order threatens the very foundation that we all depend on,” he wrote in a post on X last Tuesday. He added, “If we permit this, countries worldwide may forget why this order was created in the first place. Nations could begin to doubt the significance of adhering to international law if powerful bullies can easily violate it.” Tarriela also said defiance of other countries to a rules-based order would result in the prevalence of cruelty. He wrote, “This could lead us back to a time when might makes right, undermining the global structures that keep human greed, savagery and barbarism in check. Such a scenario would not only invite challenges from aggressive ...
Read more

China ships maintain presence in key West Philippine Sea areas --- Michael Punongbayan - The Philippine Star

STAR / Michael Varcas MANILA, Philippines — While Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) have decreased in number, they have maintained a presence in three key land features where naval and coast guard ships have intensified operations in the past seven days, according to the Philippine Navy. Latest monitoring by the Philippine Navy showed armed ships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) maintaining a menacing presence around the grounded BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal, Panatag Shoal and Escoda Shoal. According to the Philippine Navy, there are 17 Chinese military vessels and 28 China Coast Guard (CCG) boats spotted inside the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) between Sept. 23 and 30, or one vessel more than in the previous week Sept.17-23. Five of the warships were seen roaming around the vicinity of Escoda Shoal, along with 10 CCG vessels and 12 maritime militia vessels (MMVs). There are also two PLAN ships in Ayungin Shoal as well as 10 CCG boats and 12...
Read more

Social media seen as cause of rising intermarriages --- Helen Flores - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) sees social media as the main reason for the rising number of Filipinos marrying or becoming partners of foreign nationals. In 2022, the CFO recorded 6,854 marriages or partnerships with foreign nationals, a 40.1 percent increase from the 4,891 “intermarriages” recorded in 2021. “First of all, what we see in the increase in the marriage rate of Filipinos or Filipinos with foreign partners is because of social media, (that) is number one; matchings; letters, introduction of their friends,” CFO chairperson Romulo Arugay said at the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon public briefing yesterday. Arugay said the agency has been registering a high number of intermarriages since 2007, but the figures went down during the COVID-19 pandemic. From over 6,500 Filipinos who married foreign nationals, only 600 are men, he said. Most of them are married to Americans, Japanese, Germans, Canadians and Australians, Arugay said. Arugay warned Fi...
Read more