Paulina Ordonez, M.D.

Bio

Dr. Paulina Ordonez is a member of the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego and an assistant adjunct professor of pediatrics at UC San Diego School of Medicine.

After graduating from the Universidad Central del Ecuador School of Medicine, Dr. Ordonez went on to pursue a residency in pediatrics at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center before moving to San Diego, where she completed a fellowship in pediatric gastroenterology.

Dr. Ordonez was awarded a research scholarship by the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine and joined the laboratory of Larry Goldstein, Ph.D, director of the Stem Cell Program at UC San Diego. Under Goldstein?s mentorship, Dr. Ordonez has thrived as a physician-scientist focused on using human stem cells to find new therapies for metabolic liver diseases. Her research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, the Alpha 1 Foundation and the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation.

Her lab is heavily invested in understanding and developing therapies for obesity-associated liver disease, alpha 1 antitrypsin deficiency and lysosomal storage diseases such as Niemann-Pick type C1. Dr. Ordonez is one of the few pediatric hepatologists with extensive training and expertise in stem cell biology and is leading the effort to bring the promise of stem cell derived therapies to children with liver diseases and other GI conditions.