Cancer Center Research Faculty Welcomes Shengyi Iris Sun, PhD

Cancer Center Research Faculty are pleased to welcome Shengyi Iris Sun, PhD, Associate Professor of Pharmacology, to its Cancer Biology Research Program.

Dr. Sun’s research interests include protein homeostasis and quality control, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) biology, nutrient metabolism, and liver physiology.

She studies how the ER impacts health and disease occurrence, principally for newly synthesized proteins that pass through the ER for folding and maturation.

Dr. Sun’s research seeks to increase understanding of ER-associated degradation (ERAD), a cellular quality-control process that disposes of proteins that fold improperly in the ER potentially contributing to disease pathogenesis.

Through interdisciplinary research, Dr. Sun investigates the function of ERAD in various physiological and pathological contexts, such as protein biogenesis and nutrient metabolism in the liver, and germ-line stem cell differentiation. Her research also focuses on understanding how pathogenic protein mutations drive human diseases and are modulated by ERAD.

Dr. Sun earned her BS in Biology from the University of Hong Kong. She earned her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology from Cornell University, then completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Texas Southwestern. Please join us in welcoming Dr. Sun!

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