Jim Sun

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 pillars:

• Knowledge generation: identify and functionally characterize novel 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 preclinical drug development pipeline with the goal of clinical translation

Our long-term vision is to apply our discoveries not only to address TB, but also to combat emerging pathogens and antimicrobial resistance.

The Sun laboratory is part of the Prepare for Pandemics through Advanced Research in Evolution (PrePARE) Cluster.

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