Hui Sun, Ph.D.

hsun@mednet.ucla.edu

Faculty Member

Professor
Department of Physiology
Department of Ophthalmology
David Geffen School of Medicine
University of California, Los Angeles

Center for Health Sciences, Room 53-140A
10833 Le Conte Avenue,
Los Angeles, CA 90095

Biography

Dr. Sun is Professor of Physiology and Ophthalmology in the Department of Physiology and Stein Eye Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He is also a member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. He received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1998. He came to UCLA in 2003 as an Assistant Professor and received the prestigious Early Career Scientist Award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2009. He has taught in a variety of courses related to physiology and human diseases at UCLA Medical School, UCLA Dental School and UCLA Graduate School.

Awards and Honors

Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist Award, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 2009-2015.
Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar Award, Ellison Medical Foundation, 2006-2010.
E. Matilda Ziegler Foundation Award, E. Matilda Ziegler Foundation, 2005-2008.
Gerald Oppenheimer Family Foundation Award, UCLA, 2005.
Ruth and Milton Steinbach Award, Ruth and Milton Steinbach Foundation, 2004-2007.
Stein-Oppenheimer Endowment Award, UCLA, 2004.
Karl Kirchgessner Foundation Award, Karl Kirchgessner Foundation, 2003.
Alicia Showalter Reynolds Research Prize, Johns Hopkins University, 1998.

Publications

Zhong M, Kawaguchi R, Costabile B, Tang Y, Hu J, Cheng G, Kassai M, Ribalet B, Mancia F, Bok D, Sun H. Regulatory mechanism for the transmembrane receptor that mediates bidirectional vitamin A transport.. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2020.
Cook JD, Ng SY, Lloyd M, Eddington S, Sun H, Nathans J, Bok D, Radu RA, Travis GH. Peropsin modulates transit of vitamin A from retina to retinal pigment epithelium.. The Journal of biological chemistry, 2017.
Kawaguchi R, Zhong M, Kassai M, Ter-Stepanian M, Sun H. Vitamin A Transport Mechanism of the Multitransmembrane Cell-Surface Receptor STRA6.. Membranes, 2015.
Zhong M, Sun H. A genetic clog in the vitamin A transport machinery.. Cell, 2015.
Cheng G, Zhong M, Kawaguchi R, Kassai M, Al-Ubaidi M, Deng J, Ter-Stepanian M, Sun H. Identification of PLXDC1 and PLXDC2 as the transmembrane receptors for the multifunctional factor PEDF.. eLife, 2014.
Kawaguchi R, Zhong M, Sun H. Real-time analyses of retinol transport by the membrane receptor of plasma retinol binding protein.. Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE, 2013.
Kawaguchi R, Zhong M, Kassai M, Ter-Stepanian M, Sun H. STRA6-catalyzed vitamin A influx, efflux, and exchange.. The Journal of membrane biology, 2012.
Kawaguchi R, Yu J, Ter-Stepanian M, Zhong M, Cheng G, Yuan Q, Jin M, Travis GH, Ong D, Sun H. Receptor-mediated cellular uptake mechanism that couples to intracellular storage.. ACS chemical biology, 2011.
Kawaguchi R, Sun H. Techniques to study specific cell-surface receptor-mediated cellular vitamin A uptake.. Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.), 2010.
Kawaguchi R, Yu J, Wiita P, Honda J, Sun H. An essential ligand-binding domain in the membrane receptor for retinol-binding protein revealed by large-scale mutagenesis and a human polymorphism.. The Journal of biological chemistry, 2008.
Yu J, Wiita P, Kawaguchi R, Honda J, Jorgensen A, Zhang K, Fischetti VA, Sun H. Biochemical analysis of a common human polymorphism associated with age-related macular degeneration.. Biochemistry, 2007.
Kawaguchi R, Yu J, Honda J, Hu J, Whitelegge J, Ping P, Wiita P, Bok D, Sun H. A membrane receptor for retinol binding protein mediates cellular uptake of vitamin A.. Science (New York, N.Y.), 2007.
Yang Z, Camp NJ, Sun H, Tong Z, Gibbs D, Cameron DJ, Chen H, Zhao Y, Pearson E, Li X, Chien J, Dewan A, Harmon J, Bernstein PS, Shridhar V, Zabriskie NA, Hoh J, Howes K, Zhang K. A variant of the HTRA1 gene increases susceptibility to age-related macular degeneration.. Science (New York, N.Y.), 2006.
Jin M, Li S, Moghrabi WN, Sun H, Travis GH. Rpe65 is the retinoid isomerase in bovine retinal pigment epithelium.. Cell, 2005.
Tsunenari T, Sun H, Williams J, Cahill H, Smallwood P, Yau KW, Nathans J. Structure-function analysis of the bestrophin family of anion channels.. The Journal of biological chemistry, 2003.
Sun H, Tsunenari T, Yau KW, Nathans J. The vitelliform macular dystrophy protein defines a new family of chloride channels.. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2002.
Sun H, Nathans J. The challenge of macular degeneration.. Scientific American, 2001.
Sun H, Smallwood PM, Nathans J. Biochemical defects in ABCR protein variants associated with human retinopathies.. Nature genetics, 2000.
Sun H, Molday RS, Nathans J. Retinal stimulates ATP hydrolysis by purified and reconstituted ABCR, the photoreceptor-specific ATP-binding cassette transporter responsible for Stargardt disease.. The Journal of biological chemistry, 1999.
Chen S, Wang QL, Nie Z, Sun H, Lennon G, Copeland NG, Gilbert DJ, Jenkins NA, Zack DJ. Crx, a novel Otx-like paired-homeodomain protein, binds to and transactivates photoreceptor cell-specific genes.. Neuron, 1997.
Sun H, Macke JP, Nathans J. Mechanisms of spectral tuning in the mouse green cone pigment.. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 1997.
Allikmets R, Singh N, Sun H, Shroyer NF, Hutchinson A, Chidambaram A, Gerrard B, Baird L, Stauffer D, Peiffer A, Rattner A, Smallwood P, Li Y, Anderson KL, Lewis RA, Nathans J, Leppert M, Dean M, Lupski JR. A photoreceptor cell-specific ATP-binding transporter gene (ABCR) is mutated in recessive Stargardt macular dystrophy.. Nature genetics, 1997.