Summary

Dr. Duxin Sun is the Associate Dean for Research, the Charles Walgreen Jr. Professor of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Michigan. He serves as the Director of the Pharmacokinetics (PK) Core. Dr. Sun also has a joint appointment in the Chemical Biology program, the Interdisciplinary Medicinal Chemistry program, and University of Michigan's Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. Sun’s research interests focus on drug development, cancer nanomedicine, cancer vaccine, and pharmacokinetics. Dr. Sun established the STAR system (Structure-Tissue/Cell Selectivity-Activity Relationship) to enhance drug development success rate by addressing the 90% failuar rate. He designed albumin based nanomedicines to enhance clinical efficacy of immuno-oncology drugs by targeting immune cells in the lymphatic system and tumors. He also developed SARS-CoV-2 B epitope-guided neoantigen peptide or mRNA vaccines to enhance their efficacy by activating CD4/CD8 T cell immunity through B cell-mediated antigen presentation. 

Dr. Sun earned his BS in Pharmacy, MS in Pharmacology, and PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences, and has also received training in Molecular Biology as a visiting scientist. With research experience in both academia and the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Sun has published over 280 papers, and has mentored 40 PhD students and 75 postdoctoral fellows/visiting scientists. Dr. Sun is an elected Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS). He has served on the FDA Pharmaceutical Science and Clinical Pharmacology Advisory Committee and participated in study sections for the NIH and FDA.

Dr. Sun's administrative Specialist is Erika Zucal - [email protected].

Feature Story
Focusing AI on the Root Causes to Find Better Cancer Drugs

Duxin Sun, PhD, has dedicated his career to developing anticancer drugs, cancer vaccines and nanomedicines for cancer therapy. Yet despite significant advances in his work and the field over the last 30 years, a word that comes up frequently when Dr. Sun discusses his work is “frustration.” The cancer mortality rate has dropped by one-third, and the FDA has approved 250 new cancer drugs since 2000. Still, 95% of new drugs in development fail — and even then, only 30% of approved drugs extend survival beyond 2.5 months. “The frustration is that developing a drug takes so long, it’s so expensive, and the failure rate is so high. This is a problem everyone wants to solve,” says Dr. Sun, the Associate Dean for Research at the College of Pharmacy.” He is convinced there should be a better way. For ten years, he has researched, tested, and advocated for a more focused approach. He is determined that University of Michigan researchers will lead the way to a more efficient, effective drug development process.

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Responsibilities

  • Associate Dean for Research: UM Pharmacy Professor Research Outreach (UM Pharmacy PRO)

Research Interests

Selected Publications