‘All Models are wrong, but some are useful.’

The Sun lab is building innovative human neural models to understand how human nervous system develop, mature, and age; and how dysfunction in these processes lead to various neurological disorders. A major focus of the lab now is neurodegeneration, particularly Parkinson disease. Another focus of the lab is to construct synthetic or artificial cells that are programmed with specific neuronal activities. Functional assembly and integration of such cells may serve as useful models for dissecting disease mechanisms as well as fueling translational discoveries.

1.            Victorio CBL, Novera W, Ganasarajah A, Ong J, Thomas M, Wu J, Toh HSY, Sun AX, Ooi EE, Chacko AM. Repurposing of Zika virus live-attenuated vaccine (ZIKV-LAV) strains as oncolytic viruses targeting human glioblastoma multiforme cells. J Transl Med. 2024 Feb 2;22(1):126.

2.            Ho WY, Chak LL, Hor JH, Liu F, Diaz-Garcia S, Chang JC, Sanford E, Rodriguez MJ, Alagappan D, Lim SM, Cho YL, Shimizu Y, Sun AX, Tyan SH, Koo E, Kim SH, Ravits J, Ng SY, Okamura K, Ling SC. FUS-dependent microRNA deregulations identify TRIB2 as a druggable target for ALS motor neurons. iScience. 2023 Oct 6;26(11):108152.

3.            Aow J, Huang TR, Goh YT, Sun AX, Thinakaran G, Koo EH. Evidence for a clathrin-independent endocytic pathway for APP internalization in the neuronal somatodendritic compartment. Cell Rep. 2023 Jul 25;42(7):112774.

4.            Toh HSY, Choo XY, Sun AX. Midbrain organoids – development and applications in Parkinson’s disease. Oxford Open Neuroscience. 2 kvad009

5.            Zhou ZD, Saw WT, Ho PG, Zhang ZW, Zeng L, Chang YY, Sun AX, Ma DR, Wang HY, Zhou L, Lim KL. The role of tyrosine hydroxylase–dopamine pathway in Parkinson’s disease pathogenesis. Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences. 2022 Dec;79(12):599.

6.            Jo J, Yang L, Tran HD, Yu W, Sun AX, Chang YY, Jung BC, Lee SJ, Saw TY, Xiao B, Khoo ATT, Yaw LP, Xie JJ, Lokman H, Ong WY, Lim GGY, Lim KL, Tan EK, Ng HH, Je HS. Lewy-body like inclusions in human midbrain organoid carrying glucocerebrosidase and alpha synuclein mutations. Ann Neurol. 2021 Sep;90(3):490-505.

7.            Ng JH, Sun AX, Je HS, Tan EK. Unravelling pathophysiology of Neurological and psychiatric complications of COVID-19 using brain organoids. Neuroscientist. 2021 May 26.

8.            Choo XY, Lim YM, Katwadi K, Yap L, Tryggvason K, Sun AX, Li S, Handoko L, Ouyang JF, Rackham OJL. Evaluating Capture Sequence Performance for Single-Cell CRISPR Activation Experiments. ACS Synth. Biol. 2021 Mar 19; 10 (3): 640–645

9.            Sun AX*, Yuan Q*, Fukuda M, Yu W, Yan HD, Lim GGY, Nai HH, D’Agostino GA, Tran HD, Itahana Y, Wang D, Lokman H, Itahana I, Lim SWL, Tang J, Cook SA, Rackham OJL, Lim CT, Tan EK, Ng HH, Lim KL, Jiang YH, Je HS. Potassium channel dysfunction in human neuronal models of Angelman Syndrome. Science. 2019 Dec 20;366 (6472): 1486-1492 (co-first author and co-corresponding author).

10.         Zhou W, Ma D, Sun AX, Tran HD, Ma DL, Singh BK, Zhou J, Zhang J, Wang D, Zhao Y, Yen PM, Goh E, Tan EK. PD-linked CHCHD2 mutations impair CHCHD10 and MICOS complex leading to mitochondria dysfunction. Hum Mol Genet. 2019 Apr 1; 28(7):1100-1116.

11.         Huber RG, Lim XN, Ng WC, Sim AYL, Poh HX, Shen Y, Lim SY, Sundstrom KB, Sun AX, Aw JG, Too HK, Boey PH, Wilm A, Chawla T, Choy MM, Jiang L, Sessions PFD, Loh XJ, Alonso S, Hibberd M, Nagarajan N, Ooi EE, Bond PJ, Sessions OM, Wan Y. Structure mapping of dengue and Zika viruses reveals functional long-range interactions. Nat Commun. 2019 Mar; 10 (1): 1408.

12.         Sun AX, Tan EK. Towards better cellular replacement therapies in Parkinson disease. Journal of Neuroscience Research. 2018 Feb 96(2):219-221.

13.         Zhuang P, Sun AX*, An J, Chua CK, Chew SY. 3D neural tissue models: From Spheroids to bioprinting. Biomaterials. 2018 Feb; 154:113-133. (co-first author)

14.         Sun AX*, Ng HH, Tan EK. Translational potential of human brain organoids. Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology. 2018 Jan 20; 5(2):226-235.

15.         Sun AX*, Yuan Q, Tan S, Xiao Y, Wang D, Khoo AT, Sani L, Tran HD, Kim P, Chiew YS, Lee KJ, Yen YC, Ng HH, Lim B, Je HS. Direct induction and functional maturation of forebrain GABAergic neurons from human pluripotent stem cells. Cell Reports. 2016 Aug 16; 16(7):1942-53. (*co-corresponding author)

16.         Jo J, Xiao Y*, Sun AX*, Cukuroglu E*, Tran HD, Göke J, Tan ZY, Saw TY, Tan CP, Lokman H, Lee Y, Kim D, Ko HS, Kim SO, Park JH, Cho NJ, Hyde TM, Kleinman JE, Shin JH, Weinberger DR, Tan EK, Je HS, Ng HH. Midbrain-like organoids from human pluripotent stem cells contain functional dopaminergic and neuromelanin-producing neurons. Cell Stem Cell. 2016 Aug 4; 19(2):248-57.(*equal contributions)

17.         Wang JL, Shamah SM, Sun AX, Waldman ID, Haggarty SJ, Perlis RH. Label-free, live optical imaging of reprogrammed bipolar disorder patient-derived cells reveals a functional correlate of lithium responsiveness. Transl Psychiatry. 2014 Aug 26;4:e428

18.         Staahl BT, Tang J, Wu W, Sun AX, Gitler AD, Yoo AS, Crabtree GR. Kinetic analysis of npBAF to nBAF switching reveals exchange of SS18 with CREST and integration with neural developmental pathways. J Neurosci. 2013 Jun 19;33(25)

19.         Sun AX, Crabtree GR, Yoo AS. MicroRNAs: regulators of neuronal fate. Current opinion in cell biology. 2013 Jan 29.

20.         Yoo AS*, Sun AX*, Li L*, Shcheglovitov A*, Portmann T, Li Y, Lee-Messer C, Dolmetsch RE, Tsien RW, Crabtree GR. MicroRNA-mediated conversion of human fibroblasts to neurons. Nature 2011, 476(7359):228-31 (*co-first author, highlighted in Nature News and Views; Faculty 1000 recommended)

21.         Motoda L, Osato M, Yamashita N, Jacob B, Chen LQ, Yanagida M, Ida H, Wee HJ, Sun AX, Taniuchi I, Littman D, Ito Y. Runx1 protects hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells from oncogenic insult. Stem Cells. 2007 Dec;25(12):2976-86.

For full publication list, please refer to google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=WWuakUIAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate