Facilities
Laboratories
IBS is composed of five divisions namely: Animal Biology Division (ABD), Environmental Biology Division (EBD), Genetics and Molecular Biology Division (GMBD), Microbiology Division (MCBD), and Plant Biology Division (PBD).
ABD
The ABD has one preparatory room, four lecture rooms and six teaching laboratories. Each teaching lab can accommodate a maximum of 20 students. The Limnological Station can also accommodate a maximum of 20 students. The Aquatic Zoology Research Lab, Malacology Lab and the Parasitology Lab can accommodate 6 students each, while the Animal House has a 12 student capacity. The ABD Molecular Biology Lab remains unused and is currently being developed through external funding. The teaching laboratories are equipped with basic facilities to conduct laboratory courses. Except for the ABD Molecular Bio Lab, the research laboratories under the division have adequate equipment necessary to conduct research in Aquatic Zoology, Malacology, Wildlife and Parasitology. However, only a limited number of students can conduct research in the laboratories due to limitations in research space and equipment. Furthermore, majority of the lab equipment are old (5 years and older). In spite of this, majority of the equipment remain functional and in good physical condition. However, some equipment requires maintenance check (i.e., SCUBA Tanks, compressors, A/C, microscopes) while some are left unused due to broken parts (i.e., compressors, LCD projectors, TV).
EBD
The EBD maintains four research laboratories and a greenhouse/screenhouse where students can conduct theses as well as short-term research or special projects required for some major courses. The research laboratories are equipped with microscopes (compound and dissecting), as well as imaging and GIS instruments. The Cave Ecology Laboratory also houses 15 dissecting microscopes for students aside from those being maintained in the IBS Microscope Room. Ecology Lab 1 also functions as preparation room for ecology courses while Ecology Lab 2 has basic facilities for Microbial Ecology thesis students. Students doing thesis work on conservation biology/ ecology, systematics, and community ecology also have access to various sections of the UPLB Museum of Natural History (MNH) (e.g. the Botanical Herbarium, Entomological Museum, Zoological and Wildlife Collections, Microbial Culture Collections, Mycological Herbarium, Forestry Herbarium, and the Hortorium), as many faculty members are also curators in the UPLB MNH. Interdivisional collaboration is also strong for ecology majors wherein faculty from other divisions like the Animal Biology, Microbiology, and Plant Biology Divisions may also serve as advisers or co-advisers on topics of interest to students and also use their respective research laboratories.
GMBD and MCBD
One of the newly instituted courses (Introduction to Genomics and Bioinformatics) will require the use of a Bioinformatics Laboratory. This will require the use of a Bioinformatics Laboratory which needs to be furnished with computers with high processing power. These computers will be used in applying Bioinformatics tools for the analysis of molecular data obtained from DNA and proteins. Moreover, with the new BS BIO curriculum, all majors will be required to conduct thesis and special problem which are research based. To accommodate all the students who will major in genetics or Cell and Molecular Biology, there will be a need to acquire additional equipment for cytogenetics, cell biology,molecular biology, and related major fields of genetics. These equipment will be used for both teaching and research.
The MCBD has two teaching laboratory rooms exclusively assigned to Microbiology laboratory classes and one laboratory room being shared with the GMBD. The teaching laboratory rooms are equipped with basic facilities, however, these needs to be updated or replaced with new ones. Each of these laboratory rooms can accommodate 16-20 students and all are fully utilized. The Division maintains one preparation room where materials for specific laboratory exercises of the program are stored and prepared with a very minimal staff (two full time and one NGW) which likewise needs infusion of manpower. We have one Research Laboratory Room which is supposedly exclusive for use by our thesis students (undergraduate and graduate) and for the conduct of our research but is being used for laboratory classes due to lack of rooms. The MBB Research Laboratory and the Molecular Biology and Microbial Ecology Laboratory are both being used for the conduct of researches of the faculty members and thesis and dissertation of our students majoring in Microbiology and Molecular Biology and Biotechnology which is at the moment is cramped and needs updating in terms of equipment. In general, we need additional laboratory and research rooms with updated equipment and facilities to meet the demands of our undergraduate and graduate students.
PBD
The Plant Biology Division shares the teaching laboratories managed by the institute but has its own specialized preparation rooms and research laboratories. It has one Botany Preparation Room for general botany, morphology and systematics classes and another one, the Plant Physiology Preparation Room. In addition, it has the PBD Herbarium housing around 6000 botanical collections for systematics teaching and research. PBD is maintaining five research laboratories for faculty and students conducting their theses and dissertation. These labs include the Plant Physiology, Morpho-anatomy/Ethnobotany, Phycology, Plant Biotechnology and Plant Systematics laboratories. Each of these is equipped with specialized equipment needed for the discipline research. The Plant Systematics Laboratory manages the PBD Herbarium.
Overall, the Institute has 21 standard teaching laboratory rooms equipped with basic facilities to conduct laboratory courses. Each of these laboratory rooms can accommodate 16-20 students and all are fully utilized. The delivery of the BS Biology curriculum is further supported by various function and service rooms within the Institute. The IBS maintains 7 preparation rooms where materials for specific laboratory exercises of the program are stored and prepared, 1 reading room and 1 microscope room. Other support laboratories are available in the University outside of the Institute. For example, there is the Statistical Computing laboratory. The Institute also maintains function rooms for various activities of students and staff. These function rooms include conference rooms, reading rooms, and a faculty lounge. In addition, the preparations of various experiments as a laboratory activity for various courses are prepared in 8 preparation rooms manned by seasoned and highly skilled laboratory technicians. A microscope room also maintains various types of microscopes for class use.
The IBS needs more laboratory rooms. With the implementation of the new BS Biology curriculum where all students are required to conduct thesis, more laboratory rooms are needed to accommodate approximately 190 thesis students per year.
Library collection and facility
The IBS has a reading room but relies mostly to the university library which is adequate and up to date. The collection of learning materials supporting the BS Biology program in the UPLB Library consists of (a) reference books, (b) e-books, and (c) periodicals (journals and e-journals). The current holdings for reference books alone supporting the BS Biology program stand at 1,252 titles distributed to cover 57 key topics for the 5 fields of specialization under the program. Overall, about 67% of the reference books for biology in the UPLB were copyrighted 1994 or earlier and a little over 21% was fairly recent (1995 to 2004). The more recent reference books (copyright 2005 to present) constitute a little over 11% of the total reference book holdings for BS Biology. The smaller proportion of the more recent reference books is augmented by the acquisition of e-books. As early as 1993, the UPLB Library began compiling e-books for all degree programs offered in the University. For the BS Biology program, a total of 74 e-books are available. Each field of specialization within the BS Biology program has ample e-book resources. The current trend for the reference books is reversed by the trend for e-books showing nearly 46% of these e-books are current, 36% are fairly recent and about 18% copyrighted 2005 or earlier. In addition to e-books, there are also 23 recent audio-visual and interactive materials relevant to the program available in the library.
