Rompolas Lab

Pantelis Rompolas, PhD
Assistant Professor of Dermatology
 rompolas@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
 215-573-4002

Pantelis earned a B.Sc. in Biology from the University of Athens, Greece. He then worked as a Laboratory Technologist at Ikonisys Inc, in New Haven CT. In 2009 he graduated with an M.B.A. in Management and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Science from the University of Connecticut Health Center, where he trained with Dr. Stephen M. King; studying the biology of dynein motor proteins in eukaryotic cilia. Pantelis then joined Dr. Valentina Greco’s laboratory at Yale University School of Medicine where he developed a system that established for the first time the ability to visualize stem cells in their native environment in mammalian skin. In 2016 Pantelis was recruited at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor of Dermatology. 

Sixia Huang, PhD
IRM Postdoctoral Fellow
 sixia@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Sixia has a Ph.D. degree in Developmental Biology from Bio-X Institute - Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. As a graduate student Sixia has studied: 1) the function of Wnt signaling in the development of hair follicles and epidermis and 2) the role of some transcription factors in obesity and diabetes. Her PhD work resulted in several peer reviewed publications, a National Merit Scholarship in 2013 and outstanding graduate student award in 2015. Sixia joined our lab as a postdoctoral fellow in the spring of 2016 and she is interested in elucidating the mechanism by which the niche microenvironment regulates stem cell activity in the adult skin.

Gabriella Rice
Graduate Student - NRSA Pre-doctoral Fellow
 Gabriella.Rice@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Gaby graduated in 2018 with a Biology major from the University of Texas San Antonio. There, she worked in Brian Hermann’s lab, studying spermatogonial stem cells (SSC)s in a mouse model. She also did research in Wei Tong’s lab at CHOP, where she studied regulators of Jak2 as modulators of hematopoietic stem cell expansion.  Gaby is interested in the regulation of identity and fate of stem cells in the skin. 

Lisa Ohman, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
 lisa.ohman@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Lisa Ohman earned her PhD in 2021 from the Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology Department at the University of Louisville. Lisa is interested in questions regarding neural remodeling, cellular rearrangement, and epithelial-neural interactions. 

Maxwell Marshall
Research specialist
 maxwell.marshall@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Maxwell Marshall graduated with a B.A. from Denison University, majoring in Philosophy. He joined our lab in late 2021 as a Research Specialist. Maxwell is supervising our lab and animal resources and contributes to many research projects. He is interested in corneal and lens regeneration. Maxwell is currently enrolled in the Masters in Bioethics program at Penn and is aspiring to pursue medical training. 

Megan Brewster
Research Specialist

Megan Brewster worked in our lab from 2016-2019 and played an instrumental role in establishing the resources and infrastructure of current research program. She is currently a Regulatory Affairs Specialist at Organogenesis. 

Olivia Farrelly, PhD
Graduate Student - NRSA Predoctoral Fellow

Olivia Farrelly joined the lab in 2016 as member of the Cell and Molecular Biology Graduate Program. Olivia studied mechanisms of corneal regeneration and succesfully defended her thesis in 2021. She is currently the Scientific Program Lead at the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at Penn. 

Rachel Bae
Research Specialist

Rachel Bae served the lab as a Research Specialist between 2019-2021. Rachel is currently preparing for a career in Dental Science. 

Yoko Horiuchi, PhD
Research Scholar

Yoko Horiuchi worked in our lab as a Research Scholar between 2017-2018. She is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. John Seykora's lab at Penn. 

Adriana Blanco
Undergraduate Student - Penn SUIP Intern

Adriana was  selected to participate in the 2021 Penn Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SUIP). Adriana is currently a student at The Pennsylvania State University majoring in Biomedical Engineering and focusing in Biomaterials. 

Paola Kuri, PhD
AACR Postdoctoral Fellow

Paola Kuri studied mechanisms of skin tumorigenesis. She was supported by the American Association for Cancer Research, with the John and Elizabeth Leonard Family Foundation Basic Cancer Research Fellowship. Currently a Consultant at Boston Consulting Group. 

Lana Salloum
Undergraduate Researcher

Lana Saloum performed summer research in our lab between 2019-2021, investigating the cellular mechanisms of skin carcinogenesis. Lana is currently a Medical Student at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.