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E-mailLourdes J. Cruz, Ph.D., a National Scientist and a biochemist with the Marine Science Institute of the University of the Philippines, was one of five women scientists worldwide who received the prestigious L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science last March 4, during ceremonies at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.
Cruz was hailed as the 2010 L'Oréal-UNESCO Award Laureate for the Asia-Pacific region in October last year, due to her work with marine snail toxins, which can be used as tools for studying the functions of the brain and the nervous system. Her research has paved the way for the development of drugs to treat pain and neurological disorders.
The L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in the Sciences was the founding act of a partnership that began in 1998 between cosmetics giant L'Oréal and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The awards are given on an annual basis to five leading women researchers, one per major geographical area, with the objective of identifying role models for women and encouraging them to take up careers in science, which is still a field dominated by men.
Cruz is the first laureate from the Philippines. In addition to Cruz, the other laureates are Rashika El Ridi of Egypt (Africa and the Arab States), Anne Dejean-Assemat of France (Europe), Alejandra Bravo of Mexico (Latin America), and Elaine Fuchs of the United States (North America).
Cruz is an internationally recognized expert in marine toxicology and specializes in cone snails, a genus of predatory sea snails that immobilize their prey by using their harpoon-like hollow teeth to inject venom, which is a cocktail of poisons known as conotoxins. Some of these conotoxins are lethal to human beings.
One species in particular, Conus geographus, became the focus of her studies, because it is regarded as the most venomous. At first, according to Cruz, "We just wanted to know, 'What is it that can kill people?' It turned out that the snail venom was much more interesting than we thought."
Her interest in conotoxins actually began in the 1970s, and her findings have appeared in various publications spread out over two decades, including 81 articles in renowned journals such as Science and Journal of Biological Chemistry, and over 20 chapters in books and conference proceedings.
In 2006, via Presidential Proclamation No. 1167, Cruz was named to the Order of National Scientists, the highest honor that the Philippine government can bestow on a Filipino scientist for outstanding contributions to science and technology.
Along with Dr. Baldomero Olivera, her collaborator, Cruz was a pioneer in isolating and characterizing the first Conus peptides, or conopeptides. Thirteen patents covering various conotoxins or conotoxin peptides and their applications have been granted to their group, while Cruz is the first author of one patent on bromo-tryptophan conopeptides.
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