Biography
Research Interests
The Sun laboratory is focused on understanding host immunity to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and other bacterial infections. Infection with Mtb causes tuberculosis (TB), which remains the leading cause of infectious diseases related deaths worldwide due to a single bacterial pathogen. Multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) is also the single largest disease component of the global antimicrobial resistance crisis, a pandemic lurking in the shadows that is predicted to cause 10 million death per year by 2050.
Our goal is to develop novel host-directed therapies for TB and other bacterial infections. Targeting and harnessing the power of our own immune cells to kill invading pathogens offers unique promise to overcome the development of antibiotic resistance.
My research program has two major objectives:
- knowledge generation:identify physiologically relevant new host and/or bacterial targets suitable for drug development using a multidisciplinary approach
- drug discovery: promising host and/or bacterial targets are then put through a drug discovery pipeline that aims to develop lead compounds
Using this approach, my lab has identified and characterized several promising host targets and discovered lead compounds with in vitro and in vivo efficacy. My long-term vision is that our work will apply not only to TB research but also therapy for intracellular bacterial pathogens.
For more information about specific research projects, please visit the Sun Lab website.
Selected Publications
Full publication list
Google scholar
- Berton S, Chen L, Liang YC, Xu Z, Afriyie-Asante A, Rajabalee N, Yang W, Sun J. A selective PPM1A inhibitor activates autophagy to restrict the survival of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Cell Chem Biol. 2022;S2451-9456(22)00094-0. doi: 10.1016/j.chembiol.2022.03.006.
- Madden K, Liang YC, Rajabalee N, Alvarez GG, Sun J. Surveying the Epigenetic Landscape of Tuberculosis in Alveolar Macrophages. Infect Immun. 2022;e0052221. doi: 10.1128/iai.00522-21.
- Afriyie-Asante A, Dabla A, Dagenais A, Berton S, Smyth R, Sun J. Mycobacterium tuberculosis Exploits Focal Adhesion Kinase to Induce Necrotic Cell Death and Inhibit Reactive Oxygen Species Production. Front Immunol. 2021;12:742370. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.742370.
- Smyth R, Sun J. Protein Kinase R in Bacterial Infections: Friend or Foe? Front Immunol. 2021;12:702142. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.702142.
- Smyth R, Berton S, Rajabalee N, Chan T, Sun J. Protein Kinase R Restricts the Intracellular Survival of Mycobacterium tuberculosis by Promoting Selective Autophagy. Front Microbiol. 2021;11:613963. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.613963.
- Liang YC, Sun Z, Lu C, Lupien A, Xu Z, Berton S, Xu P, Behr MA, Yang W, Sun J. Discovery of benzo[c]phenanthridine derivatives with potent activity against multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Microbiol Spectr. 2024 Oct 3;:e0124624. doi: 10.1128/spectrum.01246-24. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 39361873.
- Yu Z, Liang YC, Berton S, Liu L, Zou J, Chen L, Xu Z, Luo C, Sun J, Yang W. Small Molecule Targeting PPM1A Activates Autophagy for Mycobacterium tuberculosis Host-Directed Therapy. J Med Chem. 2024 Jul 25;67(14):11917-11936. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.4c00513. Epub 2024 Jul 3. PubMed PMID: 38958057.
- Rajabalee N, Siushansian H, Weerapura M, Berton S, Berbatovci F, Hooks B, Geoffrion M, Yang D, Harper ME, Rayner K, Blais A, Sun J. ATF2 orchestrates macrophage differentiation and activation to promote antibacterial responses. J Leukoc Biol. 2023 Sep 1;114(3):280-298. doi: 10.1093/jleuko/qiad076. PubMed PMID: 37403209.
- Madden K, El Hamra R, Berton S, Felker J, Alvarez GG, Blais A, Sun J. Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection triggers epigenetic changes that are enriched in a type I IFN signature. Microlife. 2023;4:uqad006. doi: 10.1093/femsml/uqad006. eCollection 2023. PubMed PMID: 36820061; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9936219.
- Dabla A, Liang YC, Rajabalee N, Irwin C, Moonen CGJ, Willis JV, Berton S, Sun J. TREM2 Promotes Immune Evasion by Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Human Macrophages. mBio. 2022 Aug 30;13(4):e0145622. doi: 10.1128/mbio.01456-22. Epub 2022 Aug 4. PubMed PMID: 35924849; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9426521.