USA, Shimadzu ink deal to strengthen partnership in research

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

The University of San Agustin (USA) last Nov. 5 inked a new deal with one of Asia’s leading scientific companies to uphold and upgrade its status as a premier research university in Western Visayas and in the country.

The USA signed 3-year memorandum of understanding with Shimadzu Asia Pacific (SAP) in Singapore, and its local subsidiary, Shimadzu Philippines Corporation (SPC), for the initiative dubbed as “Strategic Partnership Shimadzu-USA Natural Product Discovery Collaboration”.

Shimadzu and the USA have been partners for two years, being instrumental to the latter’s accomplishments including skills capacitation, compound identification, international conferences, and joint publication of technical manuscripts.

Originating in Japan, Shimadzu holds several of its home country’s firsts, including their first manufactured medical x-ray device and the first manned balloon flight.

The company’s technologies are globally recognized, especially its contributions to the development of a novel method for mass spectrometric analysis which earned a Nobel Prize in 2002 for engineer Koicihi Tanaka.

Research undertakings under this partnership will be spearheaded by Dr. Jonel Saludes, USA Associate Vice President for Research and Global Relations and Director of the Center for Natural Drug Discovery and Development (CND3), and Dr. Doralyn Dalisay, Director of the Center for Chemical Biology and Biotechnology (C2B2).

Saludes and Dalisay were the ones who kickstarted the USA’s partnership with Shimadzu, first introducing themselves in 2015 and meeting them again in 2016, reaching their first agreement in March 2017.

SPC was a major sponsor of the USA-led 1st Iloilo International Conference on Advanced Natural Products Technologies in 2019, and also trained faculty and staff in using their High Performance Liquid Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry.

Under the partnership, the USA will be running samples in the SPC lab where their Liquid Chormatograph-Mass Spectrometer (LCMS) equipment, with samples to be sent to SAP for analysis.

USA President Fr. Frederick Comendador said that their partnership with SAP and SPC would help with their long-term goals of discovering new drugs to combat diseases that pose major threat to humanity, and to help alleviate the plight of those without access to affordable medicines.

“With the assistance of [SAP and SPC] in providing the necessary instrumentations, the university will be able to pursue its aspirations with greater hope of achieving its desired goals. I believe this agreement will not only serve the interest of both parties, but in the end will serve the greater interest of humanity,” Comendador said.

Shimadzu Philippines President Angelito Coo says that the agreement is a manifestation of how they value and support clients amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Coo added their expression of support to Dalisay and Saludes’ research group to the best of their capabilities, which he said would be in line with their mother company, Shimadzu Japan’s solutions for science.

“This, we believe, is a very important step to realize our advocacy of promoting our business through better technical support. Let this memorandum of understanding be a symbol of our bond for our common goal of helping find solutions through science and technology, the persisting problems which disturb the harmony of human life, in [a] global scale due to global issues. We look forward to the success of the noble undertaking of the university and we anticipate a fruitful cooperation and partnership,” said Coo.