Filtered By: Scitech
SciTech

Rizal genome project finds funding, ready to start mapping


Filipinos will soon get to know the country’s national hero like never before as the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) readies the reconstruction of Jose P. Rizal’s DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid). On a Monday night Facebook post, Dr. Corazon De Ungria, PGC program manager for forensics and ethnicity, confirmed that they will start mapping Rizal’s Maternal DNA. “Our newest project has been approved! Funding from the OVPAA (University of the Philippines-Diliman’s Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs) will be used to reconstruct Jose Rizal's DNA using the DNA of his descendants,” she said. On Wednesday, GMA News Online contacted De Ungria, who is also the head of UP Diliman’s DNA analysis laboratory. She said the project would focus on “genetic lineage studies and reconstruct some of his (Rizal’s) DNA.” “We have been wanting to do this before pa, pero, we had to find funding, go through an ethics review etc.,” she said. Mapping of Rizal’s DNA has been up in the air since 2011 – his 150th birthday. “Rizal’s DNA may be studied in order to understand his genetic legacy to the Filipino people—that inscribed in Rizal’s very own DNA is the DNA characteristic of many Filipinos,” De Ungria explained. — DVM, GMA News

LOADING CONTENT