Cynthia Sandor was trained as a veterinary surgeon at the University of Liège and completed her PhD in statistical genetics in animal and human genetics under Professor Michel Georges. She then moved to Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute, where she contributed to multiple genetic studies on autoimmune diseases. Following this, she undertook postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford, focusing on the validation of induced pluripotent stem cell–derived neuronal models for Parkinson’s disease using multi-omics datasets.
Cynthia later joined Cardiff University, where she began her first independent position after being awarded a Sêr Cymru II (Rising Star) Fellowship and the UK DRI Emerging Leader award at the UK DRI at Cardiff, sponsored by Professor Caleb Webber. Her research there aimed to unravel disease heterogeneity in Parkinson’s disease.
In 2024, Cynthia became the Edmond J. Safra Lecturer in Parkinson’s Disease in the Department of Brain Sciences at Imperial College London, and she is currently a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and a group leader of UKDRI.