Three Master of Science in Chemistry students of the UST Graduate School brought home awards for research poster and oral presentations exhibited during the 11th DOST ASTHDRP Graduate Scholars Conference held from September 26-27, 2023 at the Philippine International Convention Center. The 2023 edition of the conference bore a theme calling for a “Resilient, Unified, and Sustainable Philippines.”
For the research poster awards, Gabriel Luis L. Neri and Hannah Joy C. Drapisa won the first- and third-place awards, respectively. Neri’s work was entitled “Synthetic Electrophilic Cyclopent-2-enone Conjugates Modulate Nrf2 Release and Inhibit NF-κB/IL-6 In Vitro,” under the supervision of Prof. Allan Patrick G. Macabeo, Dr. rer. nat.
Drapisa, also under the supervision of Macabeo, worked on the study entitled “Isolation and Structure Elucidation of Anti-staphylococcal Secondary Metabolites from the Endophytic Fungus of Uvaria grandiflora, Epicoccum nigrum.”
For the oral research presentation, Zaira Fe C. Castañares won third place for the paper “Isolation, Structure Elucidation and Biological Assessment of a New Isochroman Compound from the Endophytic Fungus, Hypoxylon lividipigmentum.” Macabeo is also the adviser of this third award-winning paper.