Dr. Sun majored in biology and genetics, and then cancer biology before he earned his Ph.D. in Biology. He also holds a certificate from a one-year program in drug development at the pharmacy school, a certificate in bioinformatics offered by Beijing University, and a certificate focused on microbiome analysis from the University of Chicago.
He has focused his research on epigenetics and microbiome studies since he was doing postdoctoral training. Currently, Dr. Sun is enjoying research on 1) the roles microbiota, metabolites, and epigenetics play in the tumorigenesis of colorectal cancer; 2) the effects of critical cell-cycle regulators on epigenetics; 3) how microbiome and metabolites affect senescence and aging; and 4) smoke harm reduction. He has published numerous papers and book chapters and presented at many international conferences. As the awardee or co-principal investigator, he received 3 grants in the past 3 years. Since 2011, Dr. Sun has been invited to serve as a peer-reviewer for 8 academic journals nearly 90 times. He was also once the lead guest editor of a journal. Besides, he was invited to review books, including textbooks, and book chapters for publishers such as Oxford University Press and Chapman & Hall/CRC Press. As the lead panelist, Dr. Sun also reviewed dozens of grant applications for a foundation. In 2022, he was appointed as the director of the Genetics, Epigenetics & Microbiome Program at the Center for Biotechnology/Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine.
Dr. Sun also enjoys teaching and helping his students to achieve their career goals. He supervised postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduate researchers in his lab. Many years ago, he taught Biochemistry at Clemson University and then lectured General Biology at Temple and instructed biology labs. Since he rejoined the faculty of the Department of Biology at Temple in 2016, he has been teaching 2 Biostatistics courses including R programming, one for undergraduates, and the other for masters or Ph.D. students from 5 departments/programs.
During his free time, Dr. Sun loves playing with his kids, DIY, fishing, kayaking, and swimming.