Maria Romão is currently a Chemical Research & Development Trainee at CTR, a company dedicated to the development of innovative products and analytical solutions within the air fresheners and pest control markets. With a strong foundation in Biochemistry and Bioinformatics, Maria completed her Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry in 2022 (grade 16/20) and is Master’s degree in Biochemistry and Biomedicine in January of 2025 (grade 19/20) at the Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa. During the final year of her Master's, Maria undertook an eight-month Erasmus+ exchange internship at the Laboratory of Structural Biology and Cell Signaling, where she was recognized with a merit award at the prestigious European Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometry (EFTMS) conference and received an academic merit scholarship. Her Master’s dissertation focused on species and strain-level segregation of bacterial spores at the FT-ICR and Structural Mass Spectrometry Laboratory. This project involved the application of metabolomics and top-down proteomics, utilizing extreme-resolution mass spectrometry techniques and requiring extensive omic data analysis and programming skills, particularly in Python. Her current position at CTR has expanded her understanding of research beyond the academic world, offering a broader perspective on the biology of being a researcher. However, Maria remains passionate about academia and sees pursuing an academic career as highly rewarding. In addition to her expertise in FT-ICR and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, Maria possesses in-depth knowledge of microbiology, with hands-on experience in bacterial cell cultures and immortalized human cell line cultures. Recognizing the importance of a hybrid skill set, she is also proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel), communication platforms (Skype, Zoom, Discord, Teams), and bioinformatics tools (BLAST, ProSight Lite, ms2Links, DataAnalysis, etc.).