Welcome to the Sun-Zhao laboratories

The Sun and Zhao laboratories engage communities at Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine, the UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center, and the UT Health San Antonio Transplant Center to bring together sectors around a common interest in interconnected chronic diseases, including metabolic diseases and liver cancer. We combine basic science with clinical knowledge to understand disease pathophysiology and identify novel therapeutic targets for more effective disease therapies. We analyze human samples and employ genetically engineered mouse models to identify key players in diseases and understand disease initiation and progression. The combination of these systems with technologies including biochemistry, molecular biology, next-generation sequencing, single-cell technology, spatial transcriptomics, flow cytometry, proteomics, lipidomics and structural biology is providing striking new insights into mechanisms at the molecular and cellular levels that are relevant to chronic diseases, including diabetes, atherosclerosis, nonalcoholic fatty liver diseases, and liver cancer. Please refer to our research page to find out more about our exciting ongoing research programs.

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