Dr. Portugaliza is a veterinarian and a trained life science researcher who received two international scholarships, the Belgian DGD and EU's Erasmus Mundus, for M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees, respectively. He spent his postgraduate work at the Malariology Unit (Rosanas-Urgell Lab) in ITM Antwerp and the Malaria Epigenetics Unit (Cortés Lab) in ISGlobal Barcelona. Additionally, Dr. Portugaliza is a regular member of the National Research Council of the Philippines (Division XIII: Veterinary Medicine), a diplomate of the Philippine College of Veterinary Epidemiologists, and the current head of the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at Visayas State University.