DOST Secretary Fortunato “Boy” T. de la Peña (PCOO/Manila Bulletin File photo) DOST Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña announced Friday, May 28, that the agency “has approved for implementation” the new R&D projects of the DOST-Industrial Technology Development Institute (ITDI) as part of the VIP program. These are the following: -Combination Therapy: Lytic Bacteriophages and Plant Extracts against Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria; -Detection of Food and Water-borne Bacterial Pathogens using Phage-based Diagnostics; -De novo synthesis of a non-Infective Zika Pseudovirus as reference for diagnostics and vaccines development; -Development of Antibody Test Kits for COVID-19 using Enzyme Immunoassay; and