Fei Sun
Professor of School of Life Science and Technology
E-mail: fsun@seu.edu.cn
Office: B207 Huichuan Building, Jiangbei Campus, Southeast University
Personal Profile
Dr Fei Sun serves as a Professor, Doctoral Supervisor, and Vice Dean of the School of Life Science and Technology at Southeast University. He graduated from the School of Life Sciences, Shandong University in 2009 with a Bachelor's degree; obtained a Doctor's degree from the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2014; served as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Assistant Project Scientist at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) from 2014 to 2021. He joined the faculty of School of Life Science and Technology at Southeast University in 2022 and was awarded Zhongying Young Scholar.
Research Interests
The development of chromosome conformation capture technologies, represented by Hi-C, has advanced our understanding of the genome to the 3D level. Chromatin interaction maps reconstructed using 3D genomics techniques reveal that chromosomes form a variety of 3D structures at different levels. Although the disruption of these structures does not directly cause genetic defects, it can lead to abnormal gene expression and may trigger the occurrence of a series of diseases such as cancer.
Using mouse embryonic stem cells or cancer cells as model organisms, our group employs multi-omics approaches combined with bioinformatics to conduct in-depth studies on the functions of 3D chromosomal structures and the mechanisms of transcriptional regulation. The specific research contents include: (1) the relationship between 3D genomes, transcriptional regulation, and oncogenic mutations; (2) the functions of trans-acting factors (e.g., RNA polymerase and various transcription factors) in gene regulation and cancer development; (3) the development of novel omics methods and bioinformatics analysis tools.
Publications
1. Sun F, Sun T, Kronenberg M, Tan X, Huang C, Carey MF. (2021) The Pol II preinitiation complex (PIC) influences Mediator binding but not promoter-enhancer looping. Genes & Development, 35(15-16): 1175-1189.
2. Sun F, Chronis C, Kronenberg M, Chen XF, Su T, Lay FD, Plath K, Kurdistani S, Carey MF. (2019) Promoter-enhancer communication occurs primarily within insulated neighborhoods. Molecular Cell, 73(2): 250-263.
3. Xue Y#, Pradhan S#, Sun F#, Chronis K, Tran N, Van C, Vashisht A, Wohlschlegel J, Peterson CL, Timmers HTM, Kurdistani SK, Carey MF. (2017) Mot1, Ino80C and NC2 function coordinately to regulate pervasive transcription in yeast and mammals. Molecular Cell, 67(4): 594-607. (#co-first author)
4. Sun F, Huang L. (2016) A euryarchaeal histone modulates strand displacement synthesis by replicative DNA polymerases. Science China Life Sciences, 59(7): 709-716.
5. Sun F, Huang L. (2013) Sulfolobus chromatin proteins modulate strand displacement by DNA Polymerase B1. Nucleic Acids Research, 41(17): 8182-95
6.Feng AC, Thomas BJ, Purbey PK, de Melo FM, Liu X, Daly AE,Sun F, Lo JH, Cheng L, Carey MF, Scumpia PO, Smale ST. (2024)The transcription factor NF-κB orchestrates nucleosome remodeling during the primary response to Toll-like receptor 4 signaling.Immunity, 57(3):462-477
7. Liu Q, Bischof S, Harris CJ, Zhong Z, Zhan L, Nguyen C, Rashoff A, Barshop WD,Sun F, Feng S, Potok M, Gallego-Bartolome J, Zhai J, Wohlschlegel JA, Carey MF, Long JA, Jacobsen SE. (2020) The characterization of Mediator 12 and 13 as conditional positive gene regulators in Arabidopsis.Nature Communications, 11(1):2798