Faculty Profile

Assistant Professor, Department of Dermatology
Assistant Professor, Department of Oncological Sciences (secondary)
Assistant Professor, Cell, Developmental & Regenerative Biology (secondary)

Dr. Andrew Ji is an Assistant Professor of Dermatology, Oncological Sciences, and Cell, Developmental & Regenerative Biology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Ji’s lab is part of the Kimberly and Eric J. Waldman Melanoma and Skin Cancer Center, Black Family Stem Cell Institute, and Tisch Cancer Institute. Prior to joining Mount Sinai, he was a Clinical Instructor at Stanford University and postdoctoral fellow in the Lab of Dr. Paul Khavari. He received his S.B. in biological engineering from MIT, his M.D. from Weill Cornell Medical College, and completed dermatology residency training at Stanford. During medical school, he completed an HHMI Fellowship in the Lab of Dr. Joan Massagué at Memorial Sloan Kettering. His lab focuses on understanding how intercellular communication in the skin microenvironment contributes to both pathogenesis and treatment resistance of diseases such as cancer and inflammatory skin diseases by leveraging single-cell and multi-omic approaches. He has earned numerous awards for his work, including a Damon Runyon Physician-Scientist Training Award, NIH/NCI K08 Award, 2021 American Skin Association Milstein Research Scholar Award, and 2023 American Academy of Dermatology Young Investigator Award. In addition to research, he maintains a weekly clinic where he sees general dermatology patients.

Ichiro is a postdoctoral fellow in our laboratory. Prior to joining Mount Sinai, he was an Assistant Professor at Kitasato University School of Medicine in Japan, where he worked to elucidate the pathogenetic mechanisms of staphylococcal skin infections. He received a PhD in Veterinary Medicine from Gifu University, Japan, and he previously worked in clinical practice as a board-certified veterinarian in dermatology in Japan. He is now focused in our laboratory on the hypothesis that fibroblast subpopulations located in the skin might regulate inflammatory diseases of the skin, utilizing spatial transcriptome analysis and multi-omics approaches to understand fibroblast subpopulations and cell-to-cell communication with inflammatory cells. He enjoys cooking, tennis, and learning English on the weekends, but these days his biggest stress reliever is enjoying events with his colleagues

Harkirat is a postdoctoral fellow working on delineating the mechanisms of cancer cell plasticity. She obtained her PhD in Human Genetics and Stem Cell Biology from Guru Nanak Dev University, India. Later she did her postdoctoral training in prostate cancer plasticity and therapeutic resistance at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Harkirat is passionate about exploring the intricacies underlying tumor heterogeneity and disease resistance through the lens of lineage plasticity. Outside of work, she loves to draw, read non-fiction books and enjoy the company of nature.

Inchul joined the Ji lab as a postdoctoral fellow to investigate tumor-immune interactions. Prior to joining the Ji lab, he received his BSc from the University of Manchester, MPhil from the University of Cambridge and subsequently a PhD from the King’s College London, where he studied the role of regulatory T cells in the maintenance of skin homeostasis under the Wellcome Trust PhD studentship. In his free time, he enjoys playing the guitar, going for a walk around the central park, and cooking.

Paula Restrepo is a PhD student whose research focuses using computational multi-omics to understand intratumoral heterogeneity, tumor evolution, and the tumor-immune microenvironment in cancer. She received her BA in biology from George Washington University in 2017 prior and began the PhD program in Biomedical Sciences at The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 2022. Prior to joining the Ji Lab, she held bioinformatics roles at Mount Sinai in the Genetics and Genomics Department characterizing intratumoral heterogeneity in liver and brain cancer, as well as in the Tisch Cancer Institute identifying predictive biomarkers and implementing genomics-based clinical decision making algorithms in multiple myeloma. Outside the lab, she enjoys watercolor painting, traveling, and spending time with her two cats.

Raman Gill is a PhD student focusing on stromal contributions to skin inflammation and disease. She received her BS from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Material Science & Engineering and Biochemistry and a master’s in Translational Medicine from UC Berkeley/UCSF. Prior to joining the Ji lab, she worked as a Research Associate II at Caribou Biosciences developing iPSC derived NK cells for solid tumors. In her free time Raman enjoys traveling, cooking, and playing board games. She started the PhD program in Biomedical Sciences at The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in the Development, Regeneration, and Stem Cells (DRS) MTA in 2022.

Aubrey Houser is a PhD student focusing on tumor microenvironment interactions in SCC. She received her BS from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill in Biology. Prior to joining the Ji Lab as a Ph.D. Student, she was the first Associate Researcher in the Ji Lab. She started the PhD program in Biomedical Sciences at The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in the Development, Regeneration, and Stem Cells (DRS) MTA in 2023. Outside of the lab, she enjoys cooking, running, and trying new restaurants throughout the city.

Alexis completed her undergraduate education at The George Washington University in 2023, majoring in Biology and Mathematics and minoring in Chemistry. As a prospective medical student, she is interested in the discovery of intracellular communication networks that are associated with various diseases. She enjoys the perspective that single-cell and spatial transcriptomics data provides in understanding these cell-cell interactions. In her free time, Alexis enjoys running, attending sports games, and taking long walks around the city.

Isabel is a medical student at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School pursuing a research fellowship in the Ji Lab. She received her B.S. in Biomedical Sciences with a concentration in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of Central Florida in 2021. Her love for translational research and her strong interest in dermatology and cutaneous oncology let her to join the Ji lab. In her free time she enjoys being with family, playing tennis, and reading.