Biography

Wei Sun is a scientist for the Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND) and Bridging Interventional Development Gaps (BrIDGs) programs within NCATS' Division of Preclinical Innovation. He came to the Center in 2012 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Sun worked with Wei Zheng, Ph.D., on preclinical drug development for treatment of Niemann-Pick disease type C and malaria. Sun received his Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he worked on assay development and mechanisms of actions for small molecule regulators of the ADP-ribosylation factors’ GTPase-activating proteins.

Research Topics

In his current position, Sun supports the biology and pharmacology components of TRND and BrIDGs projects to advance drug candidates from preclinical stages to investigational new drug and clinical investigations. These projects include small molecule and biologic therapeutics. Collaborating with researchers both within and outside of NIH, he leads assay development and high-throughput screens of several drug repurposing projects, such as those focused on Ebola and multidrug-resistant bacteria. Sun is also interested in combining chemical biology and proteomic approaches to identify novel protein targets for small molecule drugs.