25-28 April 2019, The 6th Annual AnMicro Conference in Los Banos, Philippines

25-28 April 2019 -- the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (BIOTECH) and University of Philippines, Los Banos hosted the 1st International Symposium and Training Workshop on Microbial Utilization under the theme “Strengthening ASEAN linkages in fungal diversity conservation and utilisation” at SEARCA Auditorium. This opportune event came with the celebration of 20th Anniversary of Mycological Society of Philippines (MSP) and the 6th Annual AnMicro Meeting.

The main topic of this year’s Annual AnMicro Meeting was the ASEAN Center on Microbial Utilisation (AMUST), which is a culmination of 5-year-long effort since the establishment of AnMicro in 2014. AMUST aims to provide the solid infrastructure for fostering joint research and innovation, not only to AnMicro members, but also to all ASEAN researchers. This year meeting also saw the warm welcome of new AnMicro members from Cambodia and Indonesia; Bogor Agricultural University (Indonesia), Indonesian Culture Collection (Indonesia), Universitas Negeri Jakarta (Indonesia), and Faculty of Science and Technology, International University (Cambodia).

Moreover, TBRC team helped organize "iCollect workshop", which was one of the 4 workshop modules. The iCollect workshop conveyed a practical knowledge how to deal with microbial collection data. Other three workshops were Mycorrhiza, Mushroom Cultivation, and Rapid Composting. In total, there were 89 registered participants from 6 ASEAN countries, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

Next year, during 12-15 June 2020, the 7th Annual AnMicro Meeting and, as always anticipated, 4th AMBC ASEAN Microbial Biotechnology Conference (AMBC 2020) will be hosted by Airlangga University in Surabaya, Indonesia.