General
Fei Sun, Ph.D, Prof.
Principal Investigator
National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, IBP
Core Facility for Protein Research, CAS
Structures and functions of biological macromolecules 
Tel: +86-(0)10-64888582
Fax: +86-(0)10-64888376
E-mail:feisun@ibp.ac.cn

Web page:

Personal Page At IBP, CAS

Fei Sun Group Homepage

Center For Biological Imaging site

Research Areas

The research field of my team is majorly related to structural biology. My team combines cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM) and X-ray crystallography as well as other biophysical and biochemical approaches to study the molecular architecture of biological systems. In the past eight years (2008-2015), we have got great achievements not only on the scientific merits but also on the construction of the infrastructure of cryoEM researches.

Education

1997 - 2001   Nanjing University, China, B.Sc. in Biophysics
2001 - 2006   Tsinghua University, China, Ph.D. in Biophysics

Experience

   
Work Experience
Jul. 2006 – present    Professor, Principal Investigator
Laboratory of Biological Electron Microscopy and Structural Biology (Fei Sun’s lab), Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences 

Jul. 2006 – present    Leader and Chief Scientist
Center for Biological Imaging, Core Facilities for Protein Sciences, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Teaching Experience

Three dimensional electron microscopic reconstruction of biological macromolecules 
Cell Imaging Technologies 
Biological imaging-Principle and Technology

Other Experience and Professional Member
2006 – present Council member of the Biophysical Society of China (BSC)
2009 – present Director of Young Scientist Committee of BSC
2010 – present Council member of Chinese CryoEM Committee
2012 – present Council member of Chinese Crystallographic Society
2014 – present Associate Editor, Biophysics Reports

Honors & Distinctions

Beishi Zhang Prize for Young Scientist in Biophysics, 2009
Top 100, Excellent Ph.D thesis of China, 2008

Publications

 1.     Wang S., Li S., Ji G., Huang X. and Sun F.*(2017), Using integrated correlative cryo-light and electron microscopy to directly observe syntaphilin-immobilized neuronal mitochondria in situ. Biophysics Reports (on line). doi: 10.1007/s41048-017-0035-x

2.     Chen Y., Wang Z., Zhang J., Li L., Wan X., Sun F.*,and Zhang F.* (2017), Accelerating electron tomography reconstruction algorithm ICON with GPU. Biophysics Reports (in press).

3.     Zhou Y., Lou H., Liu Z., Yang M., Pang X., Sun F.and Wang G.* (2017), Structural insight into the specific DNA template binding to DnaG primase in Bacteria. Scientific Report, 7(1): 659. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-00767-8.

4.     Chan K.C., Lu L., Sun F., Fan J. (2017), Molecular details of the PH domain of ACAP1BAR-PH protein binding to PIP-containing membrane. J Phys Chem B. doi:10.1021/acs.jpcb.6b09563. [Epub ahead of print]

5.     Chen R., Gao B., Liu, X., Ruan F., Zhang Y., Lou J., Feng K., Wunsch C., Li S.M., Dai J.* and Sun F.* (2017), Molecular insights into the enzyme promiscuity of an aromatic prenyltransferase. Nature Chemical Biology (Advanced online at Dec. 19, 2016), 13(2): 226-234. doi: 10.1038/nchembio.2263.

6.      Wei R., Wang X., Zhang Y., Mukherjee S., Zhang L., Chen Q., Huang X., Jing S., Liu C., Li S., Wang G., Xu Y., Zhu S., Williams A., Sun F.* and Yin C.C.* (2016), Structural insights into Ca2+ -activated long-range allosteric channel gating of RyR1. Cell Research 26: 977-994 (Cover story). doi: 10.1038/cr.2016.99

7.     Wang S., Zhai Y., Pang X., Niu T., Ding Y.H., Dong, M.Q., Hsu W.V. Sun Z.* and Sun F.* (2016), Structural characterization of coatomer in its cytosolic state. Proten Cell 7(8): 586-600. doi: 10.1007/s13238-016-0296-z. [This research has been recommended In F1000Prime, 12 Dec 2016; DOI: 10.3410/f.726587512.793525970. F1000Prime.com/726587512#eval793525970]

8.     Chen Y., Zhang Y., Zhang K.*, Deng Y., Zhang F.* and Sun F.* (2016), FIRT: filtered iterative reconstruction technique with information restoration. Journal of Structural Biology 195(1) : 49-61. doi: 10.1016/j.jsb.2016.04.015.

9.     Deng Y., Chen Y., Zhang Y., Wang S., Zhang F.* and Sun F.* (2016), ICON: 3D reconstruction with ‘missing-information’ restoration in biological electron tomography. Journal of Structural Biology 195(1) : 100-112. doi: 10.1016/j.jsb.2016.04.004.

10.  Zhang J., Ji G., Huang X., Xu W.* and Sun F.*(2016), An improved cryo-FIB method for fabrication of frozen hydrated lamella.Journal of Structural Biology 194(2): 218-223. doi: 10.1016/j.jsb.2016.02.013.

11.  Li W., Ding W., Ji G., Zhang J. and Sun F.*(2016), Three-dimensional visualization of arsenic stimulated mouse liver sinusoidal by FIB-SEM approach. Proten Cell 7(3) : 227-232. doi: 1007/s13238-016-0246-9.

12.  Shan H., Wang Z., Zhang F., Xiong Y., Yin C.C.* and Sun F.* (2016), A local-optimization refinement algorithm in single particle analysis for macromolecular complex with multiple rigid modules. Proten Cell 7(1): 46-62. doi:10.1007/s13238-015-0229-2.

13.  Mao G., Zhao Y., Kang X., Li Z., Zhang Y., Wang X., Sun F., Sankaran, K., and Zhang, X.C. (2016), Crystal structure of E. coli lipoprotein diacylglyceryl transferase. Nature communications 7, 10198.

14.  Cui Y., Zhao S., Wang J., Gao B., Fan Q., Sun F.and Zhou B. (2015), A novel mitochondrial carrier protein Mme1 acts as a yeast mitochondrial magnesium exporter. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1854(3): 724-32.doi:10.1016/j.bbamcr.2014.12.029.

15.  Ma D.K., Li Z., Lu A.Y., Sun F., Chen S., Rothe M., Menzel R., Sun F. and Horvitz HR.* (2015), Acyl-CoA Dehydrogenase Drives Heat Adaptation by Sequestering Fatty Acids. Cell, 161(5) : 1152-63. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2015.04.026.

16.  Gao B., Chen R., Liu X., Dai J. and Sun F.*(2015), Expression, purification, crystallization and crystallographic study of the Aspergillus terreus acromatic prenyltransferase AtaPT. Acta Crystallogr F Struct Biol Commun. F71: 889-894. doi: 10.1107/S2053230X15008882.

17.  Sun F. (Sun Fang), Pang X., Xie T., Zhai Y., Wang G.G.* and Sun F.*  (2015), BrkAutoDisplay: functional display of multiple exogenous proteins on the surface of Escherichia coli by using BrkA autotransporter. Microbial Cell Factories. 14: 129. doi: 10.1186/s12934-015-0316-3.

18.  Liu B., Xue Y., Zhao W., Chen Y., Fan C., Gu L., Zhang Y., Sun L., Huang X., Ding W., Sun F., Ji W.* and Xu T.* (2015), Three-dimensional super-resolution protein localization correlated with vitrified cellular context. Sci Rep 5, 13017. doi: 10.1038/srep13017.

19.  Han R., Wang L., Liu Z., Sun F.* and Zhang F.* (2015), A novel fully automatic scheme for fiducial marker-based alignment in electron tomography. Journal of Structural Biology 192: 403-17. doi: 10.1016/j.jsb.2015.09.022.  (The program markerauto can be downloaded from http://ear.ict.ac.cn/)

20.  Pang X., Fan J., Zhang Y., Zhang K., Gao B., Ma J., Li J., Deng Y., Zhou Q., Egelman E.H., Hsu V.W.* and Sun F.* (2014), A PH Domain in ACAP1 Possesses Key Features of the BAR Domain in Promoting Membrane Curvature. Developmental Cell, 31(1) : 73-86. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2014.08.020. [CAS News] This paper was commented and previewed in the same issue by Haucke and  colleagues (Dev. Cell. 31(1) : 3-4.). [This research has been recommended In F1000Prime, 17 Nov 2014; DOI: 10.3410/f.719709901.793501476. F1000Prime.com/719709901#eval793501476]

21.  Xu Y., Li H., Jin YH., Fan J.* and Sun F.* (2014), Dimerization interface of 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase tunes the formation of its catalytic intermediate. PLOS one. 9(4): e95965. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0095965.

22.  Ma J. and Sun F.* (2014), Expression, purification, crystallization and preliminary crystallographic study of the cytoplasmic domain of the mitochondrial dynamics protein MiD51. Acta Crystallographica Section F. F70: 596-599. doi:10.1107/S2053230X14006827.

23.  Sun F., Li J. and Chen C.* (2014), Puzzle out the regulation mechanism of PI4KIIα activity. Sci China Life Sci. doi: 10.1007/s11427-014-4656-8.

24.  Zhou Q., Li J., Yu H., Zhai Y., Gao Z., Liu Y., Pang X., Zhang L., Schulten K., Sun F.* and Chen C.* (2014), Molecular insights into the membrane-associated phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase IIα. Nature Communications, 5:3552. doi:10.1038/ncomms4552. [CAS News] [This research has been recommended In F1000Prime, 18 Jul 2014; DOI: 10.3410/f.718326221.793497426. F1000Prime.com/718326221#eval793497426]

25.  Qiu B., Zhang K., Wang S., Sun F.* (2014). C-terminal motif within Sec7 domain regulates guanine nucleotide exchange activity via tuning protein conformation. Biochem Biophys Res Commun, 446(1) : 380-386. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2014.02.125.

26.  Han R., Zhang F., Wan X., Fernandez J.J., Sun F.and Liu Z. (2014). A marker-free automatic alignment method based scale-invariant features. Journal of Structural Biology, 186 : 167-180. doi: 10.1016/j.jsb.2014.02.011.

27.  Cheng, L., Huang, X., Li, X., Xiong, W., Sun, W., Yang, C., Zhang, K., Wang, Y., Liu, H., Huang, X., Ji, G., Sun F., Zheng, C.* and Zhu, P.* (2014). Cryo-EM structures of two bovine adenovirus type 3 intermediates. Virology, 450-451 :  174-181.

28.  Zhang, Y., and Sun F.* (2013). Electron Microscopy Reconstruction of Helical Assemblies. Acta Biophys Sin,29: 879-898.

29.  http://192.168.1.20/LBEMSB/Media/transparent.gifhttp://192.168.1.20/LBEMSB/Media/transparent.gifhttp://192.168.1.20/LBEMSB/Media/transparent.gifhttp://192.168.1.20/LBEMSB/Media/transparent.gifhttp://192.168.1.20/LBEMSB/Media/transparent.gifhttp://192.168.1.20/LBEMSB/Media/transparent.gifSun F.*, Zhou Q., Pang X., Xu Y. and Rao Z. (2013), Revealing various coupling of electron transfer and proton pumping in mitochondrial respiratory chain. Current Opinion in Structural Biology, 23: 526-538. doi: 10.1016/j.sbi.2013.06.013.

30.  http://192.168.1.20/LBEMSB/Media/transparent.gifhttp://192.168.1.20/LBEMSB/Media/transparent.gifhttp://192.168.1.20/LBEMSB/Media/transparent.gifhttp://192.168.1.20/LBEMSB/Media/transparent.gifZhang K., Wang L., Liu Y., Chan K.Y., Pang X., Schulten K., Dong Z. and Sun F.* (2013), Flexible interweaved termini determine the thermal stability of thermosomes. Protein Cell, 4(6): 432-444. doi: 10.1007/s13238-013-3026-9.

31.  Zhang Y., Wang W., Chen J., Zhang K., Gao F., Gao B., Zhang S., Dong M., Besenbacher F., Gong W., Zhang M., Sun F.* and Feng W.* (2013), Structural insights into the intrinsic self-assembly of Par-3 N-terminal domain. Structure, 21(6):997-1006. doi: 10.1016/j.str.2013.04.004.

32.  Lu J., Zhai Y. and Sun F.* (2013), Research of Mitochondrial Calcium Transportation. ACTA BIOPHYSICA SINICA, 29(3): 167-180.

33.  Xu Y. and Sun F.* (2013), Purification, crystallization and preliminary crystallographic analysis of 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase from Caenorhabditis elegans. Acta Crystallographica Section F, F69: 515-519. doi:10.1107/S1744309113007045.

34.  Wu L., Zhai Y., Lu J., Wang Q. and Sun F.* (2013), Expression, purification and preliminary characterization of glucagon receptor extracellular domain. Protein Expression and Purification, 89: 232-240. doi: 10.1016/j.pep.2013.04.004.

35.  Quinlan R., Zhang Y., Lansbury A., Williamson I., Pohl E.* and Sun F.* (2013), Changes in the quaternary structure and function of MjHSP16.5 attributable to deletion of the I-X-I motif and introduction of the substitution, R107G in the alpha-crystallin domain. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B, 368. doi:10.1098/rstb.2012.0327.

36.  Wang X., Xu F., Liu J., Gao B., Liu Y., Zhai Y., Ma J., Zhang K., Baker T.S., Schulten K., Zheng D.*, Pang H.* and Sun F.* (2013), Atomic model of rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus by cryo-electron microscopy and crystallography. PLoS Pathogens, 9(1): e1003132. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1003132. [NSFC News][China Science Daily News][NCSA of UIUC News]

37.  Zhang S., Andreasen M., Nielsen J.T., Liu L., Nielsen E.H., Song J., Ji G., Sun F., Skrydstrup T., Besenbacher F., Nielsen N.C., Otzen D.E and Dong M.* (2013), Coexistence of ribbon and helical fibrils originating from hIAPP20-29 revealed by quantitative nanomechanical atomic force microscopy. PNAS, doi:10.1073/pnas.1209955110.

38.  Wang L., Li Q., Wu L., Liu S., Zhang Y., Yang X., Zhu P., Zhang H., Zhang K., Lou J., Liu P., Tong L.*, Sun F.* and Fan Z.* (2013), Identification of SERPINB1 as a physiological inhibitor of human granzyme H. The Journal of Immunology, 190(3):1319-30. doi:10.4049/jimmunol.1202542.

39.  Yang S., Liu X., Li, X., Sun S.F., Sun F., Fan B., and Zhao S.* (2013), MicroRNA-124 reduces caveolar density by targeting caveolin-1 in porcine kidney epithelial PK15 cells. Molecular and cellular biochemistry 384, 213-219.

40.  Wang G., Zhang F., Fan L., Sun F.and Liu, Z. (2013) Contrast Transfer Function Correction Model Based on Sine and Gaussian Modulation and Spline Interpolation. Journal of Computer Research and Development 50, 808-814.

41.  Wang G., Zhang F., Fan L., Sun F. and Liu, Z. (2013) A fast calculation strategy of density function in ISAF reconstruction algorithm. Scientia Sinica Informationis 43, 584-598.

42.  Zhao Y., Zhao H., Miao L., Wang L., Sun F.and Zhang H. (2012), The p53-induced gene Ei24 is an essential component of the basal autophagy pathway. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 287(50):42053-63.

43.  Wang S. and Sun F.* (2012), Dynactin is an indispensable helper for dynein’s function in intracellular motility. ACTA BIOPHYSICA SINICA, 28(10):785-793.

44.  Bai M., Pang X., Lou J., Zhou Q., Zhang K., Ma J., Li J.,Sun F.* Hsu V.* (2012), Mechanistic insights into regulated cargo binding by ACAP1.  Journal of Biological Chemistry, 287: 28675-28685.

45.  Hu J., Sun L., Shen F., Chen Y., Hua Y., Liu Y., Zhang M., Hu Y., Wang Q., Xu W., Sun F., Ji J., Murray J., Carr A., Kong D.* (2012), The Intra-S phase checkpoint targets Dna2 to prevent stalled replication forks from reversing. Cell, 149: 1221-1232.

46.  Yang C., Ji G., Liu H., Zhang K., Liu G., Sun F., Zhu P.*, Cheng L*. (2012), Cryo-EM structure of a transcribing cypovirus. PNAS, 109(16): 6118-6123.

47.  Wang G., Zhang F., Sun F., Liu Z. (2012), An accelerated ISAF algorithm with the fast mapping strategy. Journal of Computers, 7(2): 528-533.

48.  Guo H., Yuan X., Liu J., Shan G., Chi X., Sun F.(2012), Interference microscopy volume illustration for biomedical data. Pacific Visualization Symposium (PacificVis), 2012 IEEE. 177-184. doi: 10.1109/PacificVis.2012.6183589.

49.  Wang L., Zhang K., Wu L., Liu S., Zhang H., Zhou Q., Tong L., Sun F.* and Fan Z.*. (2012), Structural Insights into the substrate specificity of human granzyme H - the functial roles of a novel RKR motif. The Journal of Immunology, 188(2): 765-73.

50.  Wang X., Wang L., Wang Xi., Sun F.* and Wang C.C.*.(2012), Structural insights into the peroxidase activity and inactivation of human peroxiredoxin 4. Biochem. J.,441: 113-118.

51.   Cheng L., Sun J., Zhang K., Mou Z., Huang X., Ji G., Sun F., Zhang J.*, Zhu P.* (2011), Atomic model of a cypovirus built from cryo-EM structure provides insight into the mechanism of mRNA capping. PNAS, 108(4):1373-1378.

52.   Wang L., Zhang K., Fan Z., Dong Z., Sun F.*(2011), Substrate binding properties of thermosome ATcpn-beta from Acidianus Tengchongensis. Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics, 38(2):151-158.

53.   Zhai Y., Zhang K., Huo Y., Zhu Y., Zhou Q., Lu J., Black I., Pang X., Roszk A.W., Zhang X., Isaacs N.W., Sun F.* (2011), Autotransporter passenger domain secretion requires a hydrophobic cavity at the extracellular entrance of the beta-domain pore. Biochem. J. , 435:577-587. (This paper was featured as a key scientific article by Global Medial Discovery.))

54.   Chu Q., Zhang K., Wan X., Zhang C., Zhang Y., Zhang G., Shen B., Lu X., Zhao K.,Chu X., Zhang F.*, Sun F.* (2011), ATOM1.0 : A GPU Powered Package for Electron Tomography Reconstruction. ACTA BIOPHYSICA SINICA, 27(3):231-241. (The software ATOM1.0 could be found here.)

55.   Zheng X., Guo J., Xu L., Li H., Zhang D., Zhang K.,Sun F., Wen T., Liu S., Pang H.* (2011), Crystal Structure of a Novel Esterase Rv0045c from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. PLoS ONE, 6(5): e20506. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020506

56.   Wan X., Zhang F., Chu Q., Zhang K., Sun F., Yuan B., Liu Z.* (2011), Three-dimensional reconstruction using an adaptive simultaneous algebraic reconstruction technique in electron tomography. Journal of Structural Biology , 175(3):277-87. doi:10.1016/j.jsb.2011.06.002

57.   Zhou Q., Zhai Y., Lou J., Liu M., Pang X. and Sun F.* (2011), Thiabendazole inhibits ubiquinone reduction activity of mitochondrial respiratory complex II via a water molecule mediated binding feature. Protein & Cell, 2(7):531-542, doi:10.1007/s13238-011-1079-1 (cover story).

58.   Li M., Xu G.*, Sorzano, O.S.C., Sun F. and Bajaj L.C. (2011), Single-particle reconstruction using L2-gradient flow. Journal of Structural Biology,176:259-267. doi:10.1016/j.jsb.2011.08.005.

59.   Sun Fei* and Wang Xue. (2011), Application and aspect of cryo-electron microscopy for the structural study of membrane proteins. Chinese Bulletin of Life Sciences, 23(11):1130-1139.

60.   Chen Shaohong, Pang Xiaoyun and Sun Fei*. (2011), Mitochondrial movement and its related cytoskeletons and proteins. ACTA BIOPHYSICA SINICA, 27(12):1019-1029.

61.   Wang G., Zhang F., Fan L., Sun F., Liu Y. (2011), Analysis and solution of complexity of basis function in ISAF reconstruction algorithm. Journal of Computer-Aided Design & Computer Graphics. 23 (7) : 1148-1158.

62.   Li Z., Zhai Y., Fang J., Zhou Q., Geng Y., Sun F.* (2010), Purification, crystallization and preliminary crystallographic analysis of very long chain Acyl-CoA dehydrogenase from Caenorhadbitis elegans. Acta Crystallographica Section F, F66: 426-430.

63.   Wang L., Hu Z., Luo Y., Huo Y., Ma Q., He Y., Zhang Y., Sun F.*, Dong Z.* (2010), Distinct symmetry and limited peptide refolding activity of the thermosomes from the acidothermophilic archaea Acidianus tengchongensis S5T, Biochem Biophys Res Commun, 393: 228-234.

64.   Li Z., Zhang K., Zhai Y., Zhou Q., Geng Y., Sun F.* (2010), Cloning, Expression, Purification and Preliminary Crystallographic Analysis of Caenorhabditis elegnas Enoyl-CoA Hydratase. Acta Biophysica Sinica, 26(1):37-48.

66.   Hu Z., Tian X., Zhai Y., Xu W., Zheng D., Sun F.*(2010), Cryo-Electron Microscopy Reconstructions of Two Types of Wild Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Viruses Characterized the Structural Features of Lagovirus.Protein & Cell, 1(1):48-58. (Cover story).

67.   Zhou Q., Sun J., Zhai Y., Sun F.* (2010). Prokaryotic Expression of Active Mitochondrial Uncoupling Protein 1. Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics, 37(1): 56~62.

68.   Li S., Zhao Q., Zhou Q., Unno H., Zhai Y., Sun F.*(2010). The Role and Structure of Carboxyl-terminal Domain of the Human Voltage-gated Proton Channel HV1. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 285 (16): 12047-12054.

69.   hang S., Zhang K., Chen X., Chu X., Sun F.*, Dong Z. (2010), Five mutations in N-terminus confer thermostability on mesophilic xylanase, BBRC, 395: 200-206.

70.   Lu B., Zhai Y., Wu C., Pang X., Xu Z. and Sun F.* (2010), Expression, purification and preliminary biochemical studies of the N-terminal domain of leucine-rich repeat kinase 2, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, 1804: 1780-1784.

71.   Zhang K., Zhang Y., Hu Z., Gang J. and Sun F.*(2010), Development and Frontier of Electron Microscopy 3D Reconstruction. ACTA BIOPHYSICA SINICA, 26(7): 533-559. (cover story)

72.   71.Zhang Y, Liu D, Chen X, Li J, Li L, Bian Z, Sun F., Lu J, Yin Y, Cai X, Sun Q, Wang K, Ba Y, Wang Q, Wang D, Yang J, Liu P, Xu T, Yan Q, Zhang J, Zen K, Zhang CY. (2010). Secreted monocytic miR-150 enhances targeted endothelial cell migration. Mol. Cell, 39(1):133-44.

73.   Hu YW, Hu ZJ, Zhang K, Wang L, Zhai Y, Zhou QJ, Lander G, Zhu J, He YZ, Pang XY, Xu W, Bartlam M, Dong ZY, Sun F.*. (2010). Crystal structure of group II chaperonin in the open state. Structure, 18(10): 1270-1279. (cover story)

74.   Ma J, Sun F.* (2010). Translocation of Mitochondrial Proteins. ACTA BIOPHYSICA SINICA, 26(10): 880-893.

75.   Xu L., Guo J., Zheng X., Wen T., Sun F., Liu, S., and Pang, H.* (2010). Crystallization and preliminary X-ray analysis of a novel esterase Rv0045c from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Acta Crystallogr Sect F Struct Biol Cryst Commun 66, 1579-1582.

76.   Zhang K,, Zhang C,, Sun F*. (2009) Disclosing the Structure and Function of Translation Machine - Introduction of the Noble Prize in Chemistry 2009. Acta Biophysica Sinica, 25(5):325-334.

77.   Wu L., Wang L., Hua G., Liu K., Yang X., Zhai Y., Bartlam M., Sun F*. and Fan Z.* (2009) Structural Basis for Proteolytic Specificity of the Human Apoptosis-Inducing Granzyme M, The Journal of Immunology, 183, 421-9.

78.   Sun S.Zhang K., Xu W.Wang G.Chen J. and Sun F*. (2009) 3D Structural Investigation of Caveolae From Porcine Aorta Endothelial Cell by Electron Tomography, Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysis, 36(6), 729-35.

79.   Sun, F.*#, Zhou, Q. J., Sun, J., Zhai, Y. J. & Rao, Z. H. (2008) Structure of mitochondrial respiratory membrane protein complexes, Chinese Bulletin of Life Sciences.20.

80.   Wang, L., Wang, L., Vavassori, S., Li, S., Ke, H., Anelli, T., Degano, M., Ronzoni, R., Sitia, R., Sun, F.* & Wang, C. C.* (2008) Crystal structure of human ERp44 shows a dynamic functional modulation by its carboxy-terminal tail, EMBO Rep. 9, 642-7.

81.   Chen, J., Li, W., Wang, M., Zhu, G., Liu, D., Sun, F., Hao, N., Li, X., Rao, Z. & Zhang, X. C. (2008) Crystal structure and mutagenic analysis of GDOsp, a gentisate 1,2-dioxygenase from Silicibacter pomeroyi, Protein Sci. 17, 1362-73.

82.   Huo X, Su D, Wang A, Zhai Y, Xu J, Li X, Bartlam M, Sun F*, Rao Z. 2007. Preliminary molecular characterization and crystallization of mitochondrial respiratory complex II from porcine heart ,FEBS JOURNAL, 274(6): 1524-1529

83.   Zheng, W., Sun, F., Bartlam, M., Li, X., Li, R. & Rao, Z. (2007) The crystal structure of human isopentenyl diphosphate isomerase at 1.7 a resolution reveals its catalytic mechanism in isoprenoid biosynthesis, J Mol Biol. 366, 1447-58.

84.   Su D, Lou Z, Sun F, Zhai Y, Yang H, Zhang R, Joachimiak A, Zhang XC, Bartlam M, Rao Z. 2006. Dodecamer Structure of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Nonstructural Protein nsp10. J Virol. 80(16):7902-8.

85.   Xu X, Zhai Y, Sun F, Lou Z, Su D, Xu Y, Zhang R, Joachimiak A, Zhang XC, Bartlam M, Rao Z. 2006. New Antiviral Target Revealed by the Hexameric Structure of Mouse Hepatitis Virus Nonstructural Protein nsp15. J Virol. 80(16):7909-17.

86.   Li X, Liu X, Sun F, Gao J, Zhou H, Gao GF, Bartlam M, Rao Z. 2006. Crystal structure of the N-terminal SH3 domain of mouse betaPIX, p21-activated kinase-interacting exchange factor. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 339(1):407-14.

87.   孙飞#,徐建兴,饶子和.2005.膜蛋白三维结构研究的新突破-线粒体呼吸链膜蛋白复合物II结构解析.中国科学院院刊. 20055):381384

88.   Zhai Y#, Sun F#, Li X, Pang H, Xu X, Bartlam M & Rao Z. 2005. Insights into SARS-CoV transcription and replication from the structure of the nsp7-nsp8 hexadecamer. Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 12(11): 980986

89.   Sun F#, Huo X, Zhai Y, Wang A, Xu J, Su D, Bartlam M& Rao Z. 2005. Crystal structure of mitochondrial respiratory membrane protein complex II. Cell, 121: 1043-1057.

90.   Shi N, Ye S, Bartlam M, Yang M, Wu J, Liu Y, Sun F, Han X, Peng X, Qiang B, Yuan J & Rao Z. 2004. Structural Basis for the Specific Recognition of RET by the Dok1 Phosphotyrosine Binding Domain. J Biol Chem., 279(6): 4962-9

91.   Shi N, Ni M, Yang M, Wu J, Peng Y, Gao F, Sun F, Peng X, Qiang B, Rao Z & Yuan J. 2004. Expression, crystallization and preliminary X-ray studies of the recombinant PTB domain of mouse dok-1 protein.Acta Cryst., D60(2): 334-336

92.   Sun F#, Li P, Ding Y, Wang L, M Bartlam, Shu C, Shen B, Jiang H, Li S & Rao Z. 2003. Desian and Structure Based Study of New Potential FKBP12 Inhibitors. Biophysical Journal, 85 (5): 3194-3201.  

93.   Ding Y, Li S, Li XF, Sun F, Liu JY, Zhao NM & Rao Z. 2003. Site-directed Mutagenesis and Preliminary X-ray Crystallographic Studies of the Tabtoxin Resistance Protein. Protein and Peptide Letters, 10(3): 255-263

94.   Lin W, Sun F & Rao Z 2003. A Statistical Analysis of Protein-Protein Interaction with Knowledge-Based Potential at Residue Level. Tsinghua Science and Technology, 8(4): 402-406

95.   Li T, Sun F, Ji X, Feng Y & Rao Z. 2003. Structure Based Hyperthermostability of Archaeal Histone HPhA from Pyrococcus horikoshii. J Mol Biol., 325: 1031-1037

96.   He H, Ding Y, Bartlam M, Sun F, Le Y, Qin X, Tang H, Zhang R, Joachimiak A, Liu J, Zhao N&Rao Z. 2003. Crystal Structure of Tabtoxin Resistance Protein Complexed with Acetyl Coenzyme A Reveals the Mechanism for β­Lactam Acetylation. J Mol Biol.,325(5): 1019-1030

Research Interests

Our research interests are mainly related with the structures and functions of biological macromolecules including membrane proteins and supra macromolecular assemblies. And the aim of our group is to combine various structural research approaches (majorly crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM)) as well as developing new methodologies to determine the architecture of the biological system, in vitro and in vivo, from nano-scale to meso-scale. In the next five years, we will focus on (i) molecular mechanism of mitochondrial and bio-membrane dynamics, (ii) structure and function of supra macromolecular assembly and (iii) methodology development orientating to biological imaging.

1. Molecular mechanism of mitochondrial and bio-membrane dynamics

Mitochondria are the cell organelles that produce energies (ATP) for cell life. Besides being as an “energy-factory”, the physiological state of mitochondria also regulates the process of cell apoptosis and calcium homeostasis. Therefore, the proper mitochondrial morphology and distribution are tightly connected with the metabolism and survival of cells. Mitochondrial dynamics regulates the morphology and distribution of mitochondria, which includes the fusion and fission of mitochondria, and the motility of mitochondria along the cell cytoskeleton. Our research interests are to understand the structural basis for mitochondrial fusion and fission and how it is regulated, to understand how mitochondria interact with motors and cytoskeletons and how the movement direction of mitochondria is regulated. Mitochondrial fusion and fission process involves the remodeling and phase transition of mitochondrial inner and outer membrane. To understand the common molecular mechanism of bio-membrane remodeling is also of our great interests, which is one key step to disclose the secret of how the cell organelle (e.g. mitochondrion) is formed and kept in specific shape.

2. Structure and function of supra macromolecular assembly

Structural biology has become one of most important tools to understand the principle of the life. Its current frontier is to study the structure and function of important supra macromolecular complex that is composed of many bio-molecules (protein, nucleic acid, sugar, lipid and etc.) and can perform a relative complete function in molecular bioprocess. Most supra macromolecular complexes have large molecular weight, comprises multi-subunits and are highly structural dynamic, which have become a huge barrier to cope with to study their structures and functions. In recent years, with the advantages of direct electron detectors and sophisticated image processing algorithm, three-dimensional reconstruction via cryo-electron microscopy (3DEM) has gone into its evolution phase and become the most important and indispensible approach to study the 3D structures of supra macromolecular complex. Nowadays, there are lots of complicated supra macromolecular complexes whose structures could impossibly be determined by crystallography and NMR approaches and now have been solved in near atomic resolution. In this new era, we will utilize our expertise in the sample preparation of supra macromolecular assembly and in the technology of high-resolution electron cryo-microscopy, to determine the high-resolution 3D structures of several supra macromolecular complexes that are involved in mitochondrial dynamics, bio-membrane remodeling, vesicle trafficking and gene transcription regulation. Based on the high-resolution structural information, we will further their functions in molecular details.

3. Methodology development orientating to biological imaging

Besides X-ray crystallography and NMR spectrometry, cryoEM has been emerging as one important technology orientating to the current structural biology study. In the past ten years, cryoEM has been developed very fast not only on the hardware but also on the image processing software as well as sample preparation methods. According to different sample characteristics, cryoEM contains three different technologies, which are single particle analysis (SPA), electron tomography (ET) and electron crystallography. Nowadays, there are lots of complicated supra macromolecular complexes whose structures have been solved by SPA in near atomic resolution (3~4 angstrom). However, how to deal with the conformational heterogeneity, how to push the resolution higher to 2 angstrom, how to increase the speed and throughput of structure determination via SPA method, answering those questions will bring another revolution in the field. One of the keys to get the answer is to develop novel image processing algorithm to maximize the information embedded in the original data. We have lots of interests on this direction and will collaborate with other research groups and develop novel image analysis tools based on new mathematics (e.g. Bayesian statistics, compressed sensing and wavelet transformation). The ultimate goal of our work is to realize the structure determination of supra macromolecular complex in atomic resolution (2 angstrom). Besides SPA, we also have lots of interest on ET and have done some work before. We will develop new computational methods to improve the quality of ET and do more work on single particle tomography approach.

Students

已指导学生

欧阳珠清  01  19183  

胡仲军  02  19182  

霍艳武  01  19183  

周强军  01  19183  

徐颖之  01  19184  

马军  01  19184  

邱彪  01  19184  

张凯  01  19184  

庞效云  01  19184  

高丙全  01  19183  

陆久维  01  19183  

王圣柳  01  19183  

陈文博  02  19183  

邓雨辰  01  19183  

王雪  01  19183  

现指导学生

牛彤欣  02  19184  

朱春梅  02  19184  

师扬  01  19184  

玉蕾叶  01  19183  

张丹阳  01  19183  

台林华  02  19183  

杨静媛   02  19179  

张双博   02  63228  

孙芳  01  19184