Meet Dr. Sandra

I lead the Ordonez-Rubiano Lab at Georgia Southern University, where we work to unravel transcriptional regulators in cancer. My approach pairs rigorous theory with careful, hands-on experimental work.

I am a chemical biologist by training. I earned my PhD in Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Purdue University, working with Emily Dykhuizen on chemical and biological strategies for studying the PBAF chromatin-remodelling complex — designing selective inhibitors of the BRD7 and PBRM1 bromodomains and testing what they do in prostate cancer cells. Before Purdue I read Pharmacy at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá.

Mentorship is the center of the lab. Students work directly with me from their first week — designing experiments, running instruments, and presenting their own results. I have mentored undergraduate, graduate, and visiting researchers throughout my training, and that is the part of the work I care about most.