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Ronadip R. Banerjee, MD, PhD
Principal Investigator

Ron is an Associate Professor in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

 

In addition to running the lab, Dr. Banerjee is a board-certified endocrinologist, and is a physician-scientist who remains active in clinical service in addition to his lab research. Clinically, his interests include Endocrine Tumors and their management.

 

Ron was an undergraduate at Stanford University (1997), and then earned his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP). His doctoral thesis was done in the lab of Dr. Mitchell A. Lazar, contributing to the discovery and characterization of the adipocyte-secreted hormone resistin and its role in obesity and insulin resistance.  Ron returned to Stanford for residency in Internal Medicine, clinical fellowship in Endocrinology, and a postdoctoral research fellowship working in the lab of Seung Kim  studying beta-cell biology. 

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In his pertsonal life, ​Ron enjoys traveling, golf, reading (especially science fiction), movies, and spending time with his wife and children. 

Nelmari Ruiz Otero
Postdoctoral Fellow

Nelmari joined the Banerjee in June 2022 as a Postdoctoral Fellow. Nelmari was awarded an American Diabetes Association Postdoctoral Fellowship in November 2023 to support her research project on epigenetic regulation of islets during pregnancy.

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She received her B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras Campus (2015). She completed her Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University (2022) in the Cell, Molecular and Developmental Biology and Biophysics (CMDB) Program. Her thesis work was on the “Role of Delta/Notch-like EGF-Related receptor (DNER) in blood glucose homeostasis”. 

 

​Nelmari loves to cook, read, take care of her plants, play with her cat Haru and spend time with her husband and daughter.

 

Jin-Yong Chung
Lab Manager

Jin is a Sr. Research Specialist/Lab Manager for the Banerjee Lab (having joined in January 2022). His current projects are investigating mechanisms underlying islet cell adaptation during pregnancy and the postpartum period.  He also manages the lab, animal colony, and helps Dr. Banerjee in teaching and training other staff, students, and postdocs.

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Jin received a Ph.D. in cell biology in 2007 from the Dong-A University in South Korea. His Ph.D. studies focused on the male reproductive system, specifically steroid production and mitochondria function in Leydig cells. He joined the laboratory of Dr. Barry Zirkin at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in 2010 as a postdoctoral fellow dissecting the role of translocator protein and cholesterol translocation into the mitochondria during steroidogenesis. He subsequently worked with Dr. Zirkin as an Assistant Scientist elucidating how oxidative stress affects the reduction of steroid production in Leydig cells and how to restore testosterone production in aged Leydig cells.

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KaLia joined the lab in the spring of 2020 to work on a project co-mentored by Dr. Banerjee and her primary mentor, Dr. Hubert Tse, (currently at the Dept. of Microbiology, Molecular Genetics & Immunology, Univ. of Kansas Med. Center) when both labs were at UAB. KaLia is a Georgia native, receiving her B.S.E. in Biomedical Engineering and M.E. in Tissue Engineering. KaLia is supported by an F31 fellowship from the NIGMS. 

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When she’s not in the lab she can be found in a gym or outdoors hiking, fishing, or camping. 

KaLia Burnette

Graduate Student

LAB ALUMNI (position immediately following Banerjee lab, if applicable)

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  • Dingguo Zhang, Postdoctoral Fellow 2020-2021.  (Postdoc, Chatham Lab, UAB).

  • Yongjie Ma, Researcher V 2020-2021.  (Research Associate, UAB).

  • Hayden Bickerton, Researcher IV 2018-2020.  (Physician Assistant School, UAB).

  • Vivian Eberly, Undergraduate summer researcher, March 2019-September 2019.

  • Eric Stokes, UAB NIH PREP Scholar, July 2018- May 2019.  (graduate student, U. Colorado, Denver)

  • Huixin Wu, GBS rotation student, fall 2018.

  • Austin Browner, Undergraduate work-study student 2017-2018.

  • Dahye Park, Undergraduate researcher 2017-18.

  • Rachael Branscombe, Undergraduate Summer researcher SIBS program 2017.

  • Colleen Mikelson, Researcher II 2016-18.

JOHNS HOPKINS SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Updated January 2025

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