We study how the human immune system maintains tolerance, and how it fails, directly in patient tissues. Working with clinicians across Seoul National University Hospital, we profile well-annotated patient cohorts with single-cell, spatial and proteomic technologies, then test what we find with immunological experiments. Our goal is to identify the cells that drive disease and turn them into diagnostics and therapies.

 

1. Regulatory T cells and inflammatory skin disease

• Treg heterogeneity and dysfunction in atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, generalized pustular psoriasis and hidradenitis suppurativa

• Molecular endotypes that explain treatment response (e.g., JAK, IL-23 and IL-17 blockade) and guide precision therapy

2. Tumor immunology

• Immune evasion and tumor–stroma crosstalk in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, melanoma, hepatocellular carcinoma and lung cancer

• Blood and tissue biomarkers of response to immune checkpoint inhibitors

3. Transplantation and kidney immunology

• Allograft rejection, islet xenotransplantation, glomerular and diabetic kidney disease, mapped with spatial transcriptomics

4. Systemic autoimmunity and allergy

• Systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis–associated lung disease, asthma and food allergy

5. Methods and computation

• Sample multiplexing, CRISPR-based depletion of uninformative transcripts, AI-assisted cell annotation, and multi-omics integration

 

Platforms we use every day

• Single-cell: scRNA-seq, scATAC-seq, scTCR/BCR-seq

• Spatial: 10x Visium, Xenium, NanoString GeoMx and CosMx, Slide-seq

• Protein: mass cytometry (CyTOF), Olink proteomics

• Computation: integrated analysis pipelines; member of the Human Cell Atlas

 

Selected recent papers from the lab

• Systemic single-cell analysis of GPP reveals treatment-responsive and persistent immune signatures. Clin Transl Med 2026. PubMed

• Mycosis Fungoides-Like Atopic Dermatitis Represents a Th22-Dominant Inflammatory Endotype. Allergy 2026. PubMed

• Inhibition of fatty acid-binding protein 4 alleviates psoriasis-like skin inflammation by modulating macrophage polarization. Front Immunol 2026. PubMed

• Integrative Single-Cell and Spatial Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals MAIT Cell Dysfunction in Relapsed HCC. J Hepatocell Carcinoma 2026. PubMed

• CXCL16 Producing Tumor Clones Are Shaping Immunosuppressive Microenvironment in Squamous Cell Carcinoma via CXCR6 Regulatory T Cell. Cancer Med 2025. PubMed

• Mapping the immune cell landscape of severe atopic dermatitis by single-cell RNA-seq. Allergy 2024. PubMed

See all papers on the Publications page. Interested in working on these questions? See Join Us.