Althea Grace C. Vertido is a third-year BS Biology student at Mariano Marcos State University, Batac, Ilocos Norte. She was in fifth grade when her curiosity in human anatomy and physiology sparked her fascination with bioscience which navigated her to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Biology.

For her, biology has always been an incessant investigation and discovery of existence, whether life forms are on the macro or micro scale. In high school, she developed an interest in reading blogs and watching programs that mainly discuss anatomy, physiology, and microbiology. She has always been fascinated with Biologists, Researchers, and Scientists working in laboratories, and writing breakthrough studies that benefit society and the environment. Thereby, her enthusiasm for the fields of mycology and microbiology was shaped during her 200-hour internship at the University of the Philippines Los Baños Museum of Natural History, where she gained essential fieldwork and laboratory experience.

While working on the herbarium’s database, she became deeply involved with the taxonomy of forest macrofungi. She also had the opportunity to observe many mushroom species up close while exploring the forests of Mount Makiling where she and her co-interns were able to identify 10 mushroom species with the guidance of their supervisors. Following her two-week stay at the Mycological Herbarium, she went to the microbiology section, where she was equipped with microbiological and molecular techniques as she worked on the isolation and purification of bacterial culture, gram staining, characterization of bacteria, slide culture technique, streak plate method, bacterial DNA extraction, gel electrophoresis, and PCR.

The weeks she spent on the UPLB MNH in two different tracks have helped her improve her professional skills and develop her proficiency in field and laboratory work which laid a strong basis for her chosen profession.