The pandemic and the presence of variants of the new coronavirus has thrust a little-known agency into the limelight: the Philippine Genome Center (PGC).
The PGC has been tasked to do genomic sequencing, an essential job in the country’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, since last year when variants of concern reared their heads.
The center was formed after the Philippines hosted the Human Genome Organization Conference in the Asia Pacific in 2008, which prompted then University of the Philippines (UP) President Emerlinda Roman to establish a committee to look into the creation of a genome center under UP.