Principal Investigator
Emma Guttman-Yassky MD, PhD
Our laboratory runs under the direction of Dr. Emma Guttman-Yassky, the Sol and Clara Kest Professor and Vice Chair for Research at the Department of Dermatology, Professor of Medicine and Clinical Immunology, and Director of the Center for Excellence in Eczema. She earned her MD from Sackler in Tel-Aviv, and a PhD from Bar-Ilan, Israel. After her Israeli Board certification in dermatology at the Rambam Medical Center at the Technion, Dr. Guttman moved to the U.S. to pursue a postdoctoral fellowship at Laboratory for Investigative Dermatology at The Rockefeller University and a second dermatology residency training at Weill-Cornell, NY. She is board certified in dermatology both in the US and Israel.
Dr. Guttman has co-founded the international eczema council/IEC, for which she functions as president. This organization now comprises of the vast majority of top experts in atopic dermatitis/eczema worldwide. She is also on the scientific advisory board of the national eczema association. She was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation/ASCI, the American Dermatological Society/ADA, and received the Young Investigator Award (2011) from the AAD, as well as other awards. She has also been elected to serve on the board of the American Skin Association.
Lab Members
Yeriel D. Estrada is a Clinical Research Program Director at the Laboratory of Inflammatory Skin Diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York. He earned his B.S from Rutgers University. He joined the Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai in August 2000. He joined the department of Dermatology in 2013.
Mitchelle L. Yu Ekey, RPh, MD
Dermatologist
Dr. Yu Ekey is a board-certified Dermatologist and a registered Pharmacist from the Philippines. Her professional journey has been uniquely characterized by a holistic approach to healthcare, seamlessly bridging the realms of pharmaceutical expertise and dermatological excellence. In addition to her clinical and research pursuits, Dr. Yu Ekey is also a published co-author for Volume 1 of the book Practical Basic Dermatologic Surgery, contributing dissemination of knowledge and best practices in the field. This accomplishment underscores Dr. Yu Ekey’s commitment to sharing expertise and advancing the dermatological profession.
Xinyi Lin, MS
Associate Researcher
Xinyi/Erika is an Associate Researcher at Guttman Lab, holding a bachelor’s degree in pharmacology from McGill University and a master’s degree in biotechnology from New York University. Her research interest is centered on unraveling the biomarkers underlying inflammatory skin disease progression and development. Outside of work, she is an avid runner and an adventurous food enthusiast, always eager to explore new culinary experiences.
Jimin Woo-Pennacchio, MS
Senior Associate Researcher
Jimin is a Senior Associate Researcher in Guttman Lab, learning various lab techniques and participating in multiple projects for her career growth. She received her MS in Molecular Medicine from Ajou University School of Medicine, South Korea.
Prior to joining the Guttman Lab, she worked as a Laboratory Technologist for the clinical lab, for various molecular testing such as NIPT (Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing), OGT (Oxford Gene Technology), Covid19 testing and HLA (Human Leukocyte Antigen) typing etc. Outside of work, she likes to cook, play a piano and sing, knit & crochet and spend time with her family and her cat. Also, she loves to learn foreign languages (She is a multi-lingual).
Monali NandyMazumdar, PhD
Senior Scientist
Monali is a Senior scientist in the Guttman laboratory. Her research is focused on delineating skin inflammatory disease mechanisms using RNA sequencing, single cell RNA-seq and spatial transcriptomics methods. Having worked in India in pharmaceutical research, she embarked upon her overseas journey by obtaining her PhD in Microbiology from The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. During her grad studies, she had the opportunity to investigate the process of transcription-translation coupling in E.coli using complex in- vitro methodologies. She continued building on her interest in gene regulation mechanisms during her postdoctoral studies at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH where she utilized next-generation sequencing techniques to establish several interesting facets of gene regulation in Cystic Fibrosis, a debilitating genetic disorder in humans. Outside her scientific time, she is dedicated to the embodiment and dissemination of Indian classical dance form of Odissi. She also enjoys painting, yoga and writing. The amalgamation of science and the arts intrigues her, and she wishes to unite the two in the quest for the unknown.
Digpal Gour, PhD
Senior Scientist
He served as Assistant Professor of Biotechnology at the School of Biotechnology Engineering, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico, and at the School of Life Sciences, Jaipur National University, India. He is a notable tiger conservation geneticist. He worked at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, India, as a Postdoctoral Research Associate. He did his M.S. and Ph.D. in Biotechnology from premier Institutes in India with prestigious scholarships. Outside work, he loves wildlife photography, which has been recognized in different photography exhibitions and the National Geographic® Portal. He loves swimming and playing cricket. He is also a weekend chef; his friends claim he is a good host.
Britta Carroll
Associate Researcher
Britta is an associate researcher in the Laboratory for Inflammatory Skin Diseases. Britta largely performs computational work including data management, organization, and validation, and she enjoys using her coding skills to assist researchers in the lab in sourcing data. Britta completed her undergraduate education at Dartmouth College with a BA in neuroscience and worked as a software engineer following graduation. She subsequently completed the Columbia University Postbaccalaureate Premedical program. Outside of the lab, Britta enjoys cooking, playing piano, and all the musical events that NYC has to offer.
Swaroop Bose, MS
Senior Associate Researcher
Swaroop specializes in NGS based translational Dermatology with focus on Clinical Trials. He has delivered on multiple industry sponsored trials using skills in Illumina and Thermofisher technologies to establish mechanisms of drug action in Inflammatory skin disorders. He is also responsible for on-boarding new protocols and implementing process improvements for the RNA pipeline. He previously worked with the CAGT (Genomics Core) where he served on the Mount Sinai COVID response team in translational NGS efforts in 2020.
Swaroop is also experienced in cancer biology and Adoptive T cell therapy having worked at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and Children’s National hospital in Washington DC. He graduated from The George Washington university with a MS in Genomics, and received his engineering degree B.E. in Biotechnology from BMSCE, VTU in Bangalore, India. Outside of work, he enjoys organizing social hangouts, cooking, exploring NYC’s neighborhoods and traveling. He is also a cricket aficionado and hopes to see the T20 Cricket World Cup in-person in the US next year.
Ragasruti Metukuru (Sruthi), MSc
Associate Researcher
Ragasruti Metukuru is an Associate Researcher at the Guttman Lab. She completed her MSc degree in biotechnology at NYU in December 2022 and has a bachelor’s degree in the same from India. While the scientific research process as a whole interests Sruthi, over the years she has developed a special interest in immunology as she studied how the immune system plays a key role in most diseases. Her interest in immunology brought her to the Guttman Lab where she finds her research interests grow and evolve as she comes into contact with people from a wide variety of backgrounds. Sruthi is also interested in genetic/genome engineering and how gene editing technologies can be used to alter/manipulate immune response (such as in the case of car-t cells). Her next step is to work towards a PhD in order to pursue her research questions in depth. Sruthi’s hobbies outside of the lab include reading, cooking, and learning new languages.
Doris Almonte
Chief Laboratory Supervisor
Lozano-Ojalvo, PhD
Assistant Professor
Dr. Lozano-Ojalvo performed his PhD studies in immunology at the Spanish Council of Research (CSIC) and obtained his degree at the Autonomous University of Madrid. He started at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital under the supervision of Dr. Cecilia Berin in 2018. During his postdoctoral training, Dr. Lozano-Ojalvo investigated the critical role played by antigen-specific T cells in allergic diseases and expanded his expertise in flow cytometry focusing on the high dimensional characterization of immune cells by spectral flow techniques. In 2022, he joined the Department of Dermatology as a Research Assistant Professor and he started leading the flow cytometry platform at Dr. Emma Guttman Lab. His major interest of research is to determine the systemic immune pathways underlying the initiation, maintenance, and resolution of inflammatory skin diseases such as atopic dermatitis and alopecia areata.