Pia Marie S. P. Albano, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, College of Science, University of Santo Tomas (UST), and an Academic Researcher at the UST Research Center for the Natural and Applied Sciences. Her research spans molecular diagnostics, cancer biomarker discovery, and the application of artificial intelligence to vibrational spectroscopy, particularly Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy. Her work explores how these technologies can be translated into more accessible, rapid, and cost-effective approaches for cancer detection, classification, and precision diagnostics.

Dr. Albano has led and collaborated on nationally and internationally funded research projects in cancer diagnostics, infectious diseases, and biomedical innovation. Her research has received major national recognitions, including the 2025 and 2022 BPI-DOST Innovation Awards, the 2024 and 2021 NAST Outstanding Scientific Paper Awards, and the Julian A. Banzon Medal for Outstanding Research and Development Award for Applied Research from the National Academy of Science and Technology.

Her international research experience includes a DAAD Research Stay at the Centre for Protein Diagnostics (PRODI), Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, where she worked on AI-enhanced FTIR spectroscopy and infrared imaging for breast cancer classification. In 2026, she was selected as a Royal Academy of Engineering Leaders in Innovation Fellowships (LIF) Global Fellow for SpectroPath, an initiative focused on translating AI-assisted spectroscopy into an accessible cancer diagnostic platform. She also serves on the Editorial Board of Discover Oncology.

Her current interests lie at the intersection of cancer biology, spectroscopy, artificial intelligence, translational research, and biomedical innovation, with a particular emphasis on developing technologies that can move beyond the laboratory toward meaningful clinical and societal impact.