Dr. Carmen Alban-Lagman: From lab to market

MANILA, Philippines — “At the end of the day, I want to make agri sexy,” says Carmen Alban-Lagman. “I want to make an agri person as sikat as a programmer, as acceptable a job as a call center agent.”

The younger generations of farming families are quickly losing interest in agriculture and it’s not surprising, says Lagman. “It’s hard. You’re at the mercy of the environment. But if you put it in the lab, kahit bumagyo pa (even in a storm), may harvest ka.”

Lagman hopes with innovations and technology, jobs in agriculture will become more enticing. She envisions personal laboratories on farms that constantly churn out fresh produce just like a factory would cellphones and gadgets. Maybe then people will acknowledge the occupation with the dignity it deserves, she muses.

A marine biologist, Lagman’s interest in the environment began at a young age. “I broke my ankle. I wanted to do environment stuff, but I couldn’t climb trees or go up mountains, so I had to swim.”

Later on, she became interested in genetics and molecular biology and biotechnology. “I got tools there and applied it to practical issues in marine science,” she says of merging her two fields of interest. After working in Japan, Thailand and the US, Lagman joined the De La Salle University (DLSU) faculty in 2007.

“When I came home, I realized that marine science is a pretty mature world,” she says. “There’s so many people in that area. But I got into a biology department, so I basically worked more on my biotech skills, molecular skills, practical applications to everyday questions.”

Lagman admits, “I thought I’d be second class here because I thought La Salle was a business school.” It came as a pleasant surprise that DLSU’s laboratories had high-quality equipment and facilities. “They just needed people to use it” – and Lagman was more than willing to fill that need.

At DLSU, Lagman established the Practical Genomics Laboratory, with the objective “to become different from what other people do; integration of biotechnology, molecular biology, genetics as fields and then put it with things like GIS mapping, mobile computing.”

Lagman adds, “We incorporate a lot of information technology – signs and posters manuals, platforms that are more accessible, more democratized toward less equipped, less trained institutions.”

Recently, Lagman took part in an international program called the Newton Fund, which is subscribed to by 23 countries. In the Philippines, the Newton-Agham Fund is mounted in partnership with the British Council and the Department of Science and Technology. “The aim of this program is to jump start innovation entrepreneurship,” says Lagman.

The seven-month program is designed for people with innovation skills – scientists like Lagman – who do not have entrepreneurial skills.

Before undergoing an 18-day intensive course in the UK, Lagman and her fellow participants from the Philippines were given a crash course at the Asian Institute of Management, learning the basics – “What’s a business model, what’s financing, what’s investment…”

In the UK, the group trained in soft and hard skills and exchanged ideas with colleagues from around the world, honing their pitches for various projects and products that take science into practical, everyday applications to solve real-life problems.

Lagman lists what she’s learned so far: how to make a business plan; what is your value proposition; how will your product make a difference in the world; how to sell to your customers; finding suppliers and funding.

“I’ve been a scientist for 30 years! I never thought I’d take accounting,” she says, quickly adding, “I should have done this earlier. I would have written my grants differently. I would have done my lab stuff differently.”

Lagman explains that traditionally, scientists seek grants, come up with a product or innovation, “then you throw it to the wind.” She says many scientists have the mindset that “beyond that it’s no longer my job. My job is to come up with the ideas.”

After attending the Newton Fund program, Lagman realized that her role does not have to end there. “All this time, all I knew was to compete for grants... What I learned in marketing is: you test the market, you learn from it, you get feedback quickly, you quickly drop or you quickly modify or park it.”

She adds this is not necessarily easy for a scientist who has worked long hours – even years – in the lab, only to receive negative feedback from the end user.

From having a purely scientific mindset, she now operates with a little bit of business know-how, thinking about how her audience receives the innovation, how to make it better based on the market and how to make the innovation sustainable, rather than just relying on a grant.

“You can actually create an industry. You can actually create a livelihood. Wasn’t that the reason for the grants anyway? Commercialization can lead to sustainability of the solution, instead of giving it away,” she says. “If we keep on developing technologies under subsidized systems, they will never become profitable. We will always be operating at a loss.”

At the Newton Fund program, Lagman presented an innovation that will revolutionize the coffee industry. “Philippine coffee is making waves,” she says, noting that Philippine Coffee Board president Chit Juan has recently made strides in getting the country’s specialty coffee recognized and creating interest and awareness in harvesting good quality coffee.

However, Lagman says, coffee farmers may find it difficult to get seedlings of good quality origin. So, she came up with a DIY Tissue Culture Kit for coffee.

The “lab-in-a-box” will let farmers produce seedlings in vast quantities from those that they already know are of high quality.

“If we had a DIY kit, even small farms and cooperatives can build their own seedling centers,” says Lagman, noting that there are only a few seedling centers in the country right now.

She further explains how the kit works: “If you have a good coffee tree, you can make clones of it. You can even sell it without cutting branches off the tree. It will increase the access to seedlings and quality will be assured.”

The DIY kit brings tissue culture out of the lab and onto the field. It is also presented in easy to follow steps and in layman’s terms, opening the innovation and technology to all.

Back from the UK, Lagman is currently testing the market while continuing monthly mentoring at AIM for the entrepreneurial side of the project. Together with others who have undergone the Newton-Agham Fund program, Lagman recently launched the DIY Tissue Culture Kit and held a demonstration to present the innovation to the public and to possible investors.

The panel at the AIM launch recommended that the Philippines further strengthen its local cacao and coffee varieties. With innovations like Lagman’s, the coffee and cacao sectors are well equipped to compete in the global market.

On her current project and all her other innovations in the works, Lagman says, “Every time I do technology development, my justification on paper is I will change the world.”

Likewise, she encourages her students and aspiring scientists to “change the way you do science... Be a little bit more curious, less passive, more active when trying to get answers to problems.”