Zhao Sun, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at The University of Texas at Dallas, where he established his lab in August 2025. Prior to joining UT Dallas, he was a Staff Scientist and Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Andrew Yoo at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Dr. Sun began his graduate training in 2010 in the Ph.D. program at theTexas A&M Health Science Center, Institute of Biosciences and Technology (IBT) at Houston, where he joined Dr. Brad Amendt’s lab to study dental stem cell maintenance, growth, and craniofacial development. In 2012, he moved with Dr. Amendt’s lab to the University of Iowa, where he earned his Ph.D. in Anatomy and Cell Biology.

Dr. Sun’s research has been published in leading scientific journals, including Science, Nature, Nature Protocols, Development, PLOS Genetics, and The Journal of Biological Chemistry. His research program focuses on leveraging direct cellular reprogramming and stem cell biology to develop improved models of human disease, particularly neurodegenerative disorders and brain aging, and to accelerate the discovery of novel therapeutic strategies.