Pinoy scientist battles world's top killer disease

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 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 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 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 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 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.

Dr Tancongco Culiat’s achievement proves we can produce great scientific minds, and there is no one better to take on this project.Photo courtesy of Nell One Therapeutics Inc.

A Beautiful Mind Dr Culiat’s achievement is a testament to how Filipinos can excel in every field, no matter how implausible it may seem at first. “She showed an inclination towards the field of science at a very young age," said Dr Culiat’s sister Edna Belleza, general manager of the Philippine Entertainment Portal. “We had the same elementary science teacher in Lourdes College Grade School in Cagayan de Oro City who told our class that my older sister used to bring an encyclopedia to school and debate with her. She was also one of the distinguished graduates of Philippine Science High School," she added. In college, Dr Culiat majored in cell biology at the University of the Philippines – Los Baños. She also taught undergraduate courses in molecular biology and genetics at the UPLB from 1981 to 1990. It was also in UPLB where Dr Culiat met her husband, Julio. The couple and their son Caleb reside in Tennessee. After finishing her master’s degree in genetics from UPLB in 1988, she did research at ORNL under a fellowship. She again went to ORNL two years later, this time to finish a doctoral degree in biomedical sciences and a post-doctoral fellowship in molecular genetics. Dr Culiat’s job at ORNL does not only provide “access to resources and cutting-edge technology," but also “the opportunity to meet and collaborate with other leading scientists in her field, not just in America but also in other countries," according to Belleza. She is now a senior staff scientist at ORNL’s Systems Genetics group, where her findings on the Nell-1 protein and regeneration of heart muscle cells shook the scientific world and spawned an entirely new company. “We created this company (NellOne) to translate Dr Culiat’s discovery into clinical applications," said Warren. A Good Heart Dr Culiat seems quite satisfied with where she is and what she’s doing. “She is deeply thankful and committed to the opportunity to potentially help a lot of suffering people, herself having recently survived a very deadly heart disease called myocarditis," said Belleza. This is the first time that that the acclaimed Filipino scientist ventured into commercializing the fruits of her research. For the most part she has been an outstanding member of the academe—apart from her professorial years at UP, she has been teaching at the University of Tennessee–Knoxville since 1999. Her scientific prowess earned her last year the ORNL Technology Transfer Key Contributor Award and the Outstanding Mentor Award from the ORNL-DOE Office of Science. Dr Culiat’s hectic schedule allows little time for frequent visits to the Philippines, but she was in the country last February to see old school friends and relatives in Manila and Mindanao. One of the highlights of her last visit, according to Belleza, was an entire day of Philippine history that started with a trip to the Ayala Museum and ended with a tour of Intramuros courtesy of the "famous" Carlos Celdran. "It was a great way for her to reconnect with her past and at the same time introduce the Philippines to her best friend, Robin Stoller, who was visiting the country for the first time," Belleza said. She may not be in the Philippines all the time, but Dr Culiat’s body of work and dedication to her craft—a craft aimed at helping people — show that her heart is in the right place. - GMANews.TV