BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
NAME
POSITION TITLE
Sun, Jingchun
Research Assistant Professor
eRA COMMONS USER NAME
JingchunSun
EDUCATION/TRAINING
INSTITUTION AND LOCATION
Southwest Agriculture University, China
Shanghai Fisheries University, China
Shanghai Jiaotong University, China
Virginia Commonwealth University
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
DEGREE
(if applicable)
MM/YY
B.S.
M.S.
Ph.D.
Post-doc
Post-doc
07/95
07/01
07/05
12/05-06/09
07/09-06/11
FIELD OF STUDY
Freshwater Fishery
Aquatic Genetics
Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics
A. Personal Statement
My major research interest is focusing on the development of bioinformatics and systems biology approaches,
and the application to the important but difficult problems of complex disease genetics, especially
neuropsychiatric disorders and cancer. Recently, I have developed and utilized integrative genomics and
systems biology approaches to study a number of complex diseases, including schizophrenia and
glioblastoma. These methods mainly incorporate the use of both low-throughput and high-throughput analyses
based on an appropriate application to the data and purpose of each individual project. The methods I have
recently developed include: 1) multi-dimensional evidence-based candidate gene prioritization; 2) integrative
analyses of genetic and genomic data; 3) next generation sequencing approaches (including whole genome
sequencing and RNA sequencing) to discover disease-specific mutations and genes; 4) construction and
application of disease-specific networks (such as protein-protein interaction networks and regulatory networks)
to search for new risk factors; and 5) integration of multiple evidence to investigate the molecular mechanisms
underlying drug actions including gene expression, Electronic Medical Records (EMRs).
B. Positions and Honors
Positions and Employment
2002-2005
Research Assistant, Bioinformatics Center, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
2005-2009
Postdoctoral Associate, Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics,
Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA
2009-2011
Postdoctoral Fellow, Departments of Biomedical Informatics and Psychiatry, Vanderbilt
University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, USA
2011-2012
Research Instructor in Dr. Zhao lab, Departments of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt
University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, USA
2012-Present
Research Assistant Professor, Departments of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University
School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, USA
Honors
2005
2010
2011
Hewlett-Packard (HP) Scholarship in China
Finalist, the 2009/2010 Postdoc of the Year Award, Vanderbilt University
NARSAD Young Investigator Award (2011-2013), Brain & Behavior Research Foundation
C. Peer-reviewed publications
1. Sun J, Gong X, Purow B, Zhao Z. Glioblastoma microRNA-transcription factor regulatory networks and its
application to identify microRNAs in pathways. PLoS Computational Biology. 2012 8(7): e1002488 [PMID:
22829753]
2. Sun J, Wu Y, Xu H, Zhao Z. DTome: a web-based tool for drug-target interactome construction. BMC
Bioinformatics. 2012 13 (Suppl 9): 57 [ PMID: 22901092]
3. Sun J, Jayathilake K, Zhao Z, Meltzer H. Investigation of association between gene GABRB3, SLC6A4,
MAOB, and PAH regions and five symptoms in schizophrenia. Psychiatry Research. 2012 Mar 12. [PMID:
22901092]
4. Xu J, Sun J*, Chen J, Helm M, Li Anna, Zhao Z, Chen X. Analysis of schizophrenia mRNA sequencing
data identifies the dysregulation of genes in cell adhesion molecules pathway and immune systems. BMC
Genomics. 2012 13(Suppl 8):S2. (*Co-first author)
5. Sun J, Xu H, Zhao Z. Network-assisted investigation of antipsychotic drugs and their targets. Chemistry &
Biodiversity. 2012 9(5):900-910. [PMID: 22589091]
6. Zhao M, Sun J, Zhao Z. Distinct and competitive regulatory patterns of tumor suppressor genes and
oncogenes in ovarian cancer. PLoS One. 2012 7(8):e44175. [PMID: 22952919]
7. Zhao M, Sun J, Zhao Z. TSGene: a web resource for tumor suppressor genes. Nucleic Acids Research.
2012 [Epub ahead of print]
8. Fanous A, Middleton F, Gentile K, Amdur R, Masher B, Zhao Z, Sun J, Medeiros H, Carvalho C, Ferreira
S, Macedo A, Knowles J, Azevedo M, Pato M, Pato C. Genetic overlap of schizophrenia and bipolar
disorder in a high-density linkage survey in the Portuguese Island Population. American Journal of Medical
Genetics B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics. 2012 159B(4): 383-391. [PMID: 22461138]
9. Liu M, Wu Y, Chen Y, Sun J, Zhao Z, Chen XW, Xu H. Large-scale prediction of adverse drug reactions by
integrating chemical, biological and phenotypic properties of drugs. J. Am. Med. Inform. Assoc. 2012
19(e1):e28-35. [PMID: 22718037]
10. Sun J, Wan C, Jia P, Riley BP, Kendler KS, Zhao Z. Systematic identification and validation of GRB2 as a
susceptibility gene for schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research. 2011 125(2-3):201-208. [PMID: 21195589]
11. Putnam D, Sun J, Zhao Z. Exploring schizophrenia drug-gene interactions through molecular network and
pathway modeling. AMIA Annu. Symp. Proc. 2011 2011:1127-1133. [PMID: 22195173]
12. Xia J, Sun J, Jia P, Zhao Z. Do cancer proteins really interact strongly in the human protein-protein
interaction network? Computational Biology and Chemistry. 2011 35(3):121-125. [PMID: 21666777]
13. Bigdeli TB, Maher BS, Zhao Z, van den Oord EJCG, Thiselton DL, Sun J, Webb BT, Amdur RL, Wormley
B, O’Neill FA, Walsh D, Riley BP, Kendler KS, Fanous AH. Comprehensive gene-based association study
of a chromosome 20 linked region implicates novel risk loci for depressive symptoms in psychotic illness.
PLoS One, 2011 6(12): e21440. [PMID: 22220189]
14. Sun J, Jia P, Fanous AH, van den Oord EJCG, Chen X, Riley BP, Amdur RL, Kendler KS, Zhao Z.
Schizophrenia gene networks and pathways and their applications for novel candidate gene selection.
PLoS One. 2010 5(6): e11351. [PMID: 20613869]
15. Sun J, Zhao Z. Functional features, biological pathways and protein interaction networks of addictionrelated genes. Chemistry & Biodiversity. 2010 7(5):1153-1161. [PMID: 20491072]
16. Sun J, Zhao Z. A comparative study of cancer proteins in the human protein-protein interaction network.
BMC Genomics. 2010 11 (Suppl 3):S5 [PMID: 21143787]
17. Sun J, Han L, Zhao Z. Gene- and evidence-based candidate gene selection for schizophrenia and gene
feature analysis. Artificial Intelligence in Medicine. 2010 48(2-3):99-106. [PMID: 19944577]
18. Jia P, Sun J, Guo AY, Zhao Z. SZGR: A comprehensive schizophrenia gene resource. Molecular
Psychiatry. 2010 15(5):453-462. [PMID: 20424623]
19. Guo AY, Sun J, Jia P, Zhao Z. A novel microRNA and transcription factor mediated regulatory network in
schizophrenia. BMC Systems Biology. 2010 4:10. [PMID: 20156358]
20. Guo AY, Sun J, Jia P, Zhao Z. Network analysis of ethanol-related candidate genes. Chemistry &
Biodiversity. 2010 7(5):1142-1152. [PMID: 20491071]
21. Sun J, Jia P, Fanous AH, Webb BT, van den Oord EJCG, Kendler KS, Zhao Z. A multi-dimensional
evidence-based candidate gene prioritization approach for complex diseases – Schizophrenia as a case.
Bioinformatics. 2009 25(19):2595-2602. [PMID: 19602527]
22. Guo A*, Sun J*, Riley BP, Kendler KS, Zhao Z. The dystrobrevin binding protein 1 (DTNBP1) gene
features and networks. Molecular Psychiatry. 2009 14:18-29. [PMID: (*Co-first author) [PMID: 18663367]
23. Riley B, Kuo PH, Maher BS, Fanous AH, Sun J, Wormley B, O’Neill FA, Walsh D, Zhao Z, and Kendler KS.
The dystrobrevin binding protein 1 (DTNBP1) gene is associated with schizophrenia in the Irish Case
Control Study of Schizophrenia (ICCSS) sample. Schizophrenia Research. 2009 115(2-3):245-253. [PMID:
19800201]
24. Sun J, Kuo PH, Riley BP, Kendler KS, Zhao Z. Candidate genes for schizophrenia: a survey of association
studies and gene ranking. American Journal of Medical Genetics B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics. 2008
147B(7):1173-1181. [PMID: 18361404]
25. Sun J, Sun Y, Ding G, Liu Q, Wang C, He Y, Shi T, Li Y, Zhao Z. InPrePPI: an integrated evaluation
method based on genomic context for predicting protein-protein interactions in prokaryotic genomes. BMC
Bioinformatics. 2007 8:414. [PMID: 17963500]
26. Sun J, Zhao Z. Construction of phylogenetic profiles based on genetic distance of hundreds of genomes.
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. 2007 355(3):849-853. [PMID: 17320815]
27. Sun J, Li Y, Zhao Z. Phylogenetic profiles for the prediction of protein-protein interactions: how to select
reference organisms? Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. 2007 353(4):985-991.
[PMID: 17207465]
28. Sun J, Xu J, Cao J, Liu Q, Guo X, Shi T, Li Y. Prediction and systematic study of protein-protein interaction
networks of Leptospira interrogans. Chinese Science Bulletin. 2006 51:1296-1305
29. Sun J, Xu J, Liu Z, Liu Q, Zhao A, Shi T, Li Y. Refined phylogenetic profiles method for predicting proteinprotein interactions. Bioinformatics. 2005 21(16):3409-3415. [PMID: 15947018]
30. Sun J, Chen M, Xu J, Luo J. Relationships among stop codon usage bias, its context, isochores, and gene
expression level in various eukaryotes. Journal of Molecular Evolution 2005 61(4):437-444. [PMID:
16170455]
31. Sun J, Xu J, Li Y. Analysis and application of large-scale protein-protein interaction data sets. Chinese
Science Bulletin. 2005 50:2267-2272
C. Research Support
Ongoing
NARSAD (Sun)
7/15/11-7/14/13
National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression Young Investigator Award
A Systematic Analysis of Genotype-Phenotype Association in Psychosis
Role: Principal Investigator
1-P20-AA017828 (Kendler and Miles, Center PIs) 9/25/09-8/31/13
NIAAA
Cross Species Identification of Gene Networks in Acute Responses to Ethanol
This Center (P20) project aims to develop a collaborative network of human, mouse, C. elegans and
Drosophila researchers for identification and cross-species validation of genes involved in acute response to
alcohol.
Role: Investigator