Dr. Paola Guadalupe Gordillo Guerra is a full-time Associate Professor at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Xochimilco Campus, affiliated with the Department of Biological Systems. Originally from Comitán de Domínguez, in the state of Chiapas, she earned her Bachelor's degree in Pharmaceutical Biological Chemistry, as well as her Master's and Doctorate in Chemical Sciences from the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP), graduating Cum Laude with honors at all three levels.

During her academic training, she undertook research placements at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in France, where she worked on the synthesis of β-substituted amino acids through dialkylzinc additions to aminoenoates, and at the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, focusing on the biological evaluation of cyclic zwitterionic compounds. She later completed a postdoctoral stay at the Université Paris Descartes, in the Laboratoire de Chimie et Biochimie Pharmacologiques et Toxicologiques, focused on the diastereoselective synthesis and biological evaluation of 3,5-diaminopiperidine derivatives.

She previously worked as a full-time professor at the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Puebla and Monterrey campuses, where she taught analytical chemistry and participated in industry-linked research projects, including pilot-scale evaluations in collaboration with chemical and pharmaceutical companies.

Currently, she conducts research in Laboratory N302 of Organic Chemistry and Medicinal Plants. There, she takes an interdisciplinary approach involving the isolation of plant-derived metabolites and their structural characterization using spectroscopic techniques (IR, NMR, MS), and biological evaluations in experimental models for cytotoxicity (cancer), metabolic syndrome, pain and inflammation, and neurodegenerative diseases. A key focus of her research is the structural modification of bioactive compounds to improve or optimize their pharmacological activity.

She teaches undergraduate courses in the Pharmaceutical Biological Chemistry program, including “Synthesis and Reactivity of Organic Compounds” and “Production of Organic Compounds of Pharmaceutical Interest,” as well as graduate-level courses related to the synthesis, isolation, characterization, and evaluation of biologically active molecules.

Dr. Gordillo Guerra is the author of multiple peer-reviewed scientific articles published in international journals and has actively participated in national and international conferences in the fields of organic chemistry, pharmacology, and natural products. Her work represents a significant contribution to interdisciplinary research focused on the discovery of new bioactive entities with therapeutic potential and the training of highly qualified professionals in synthetic organic chemistry and medicinal chemistry.