Center for Global Health and Inter-Disciplinary Research
* (COPH GHIDR Genomics Researchers Profile)
Xingmin Sun, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Molecular Medicine, College of Medicine
Contact Info
- Office: MDC 3523
- Academic Email: sun5@usf.edu
- Academic Phone: (813) 974-4553
- View My C.V. | View My Website | View My Lab Site
Education
- PhD, Natural Sciences, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, 2002
- MS, Veterinary Microbiology & Immunology, Nanjing Agricultural University, 1994
Biography
Dr. Xingmin Sun is an Associate Professor with tenure in the Department of Molecular Medicine, College of Medicine at the University of South Florida (USF). He holds courtesy appointments in the Department of Internal Medicine, Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology & Molecular Biology, Department of Chemistry at USF, and USF Genomics. He received his PhD in Natural Sciences from the University of Kiel, Germany, and his master’s degree in Veterinary Microbiology and Immunology from Nanjing Agricultural University, China. He received his postdoctoral training in Molecular Microbiology and Biochemistry at Brown University, USA. He was an NIH (National Institutes of Health) Career Development K01 Awardee. His laboratory has been continuously supported by NIH. He has been actively serving NIH study section panels including chairing the NIH study section panel in 2020. Currently, he serves as an Associate Editor for “Molecular Medicine”, Associate topic editor for “Frontiers in Microbiology”, and editorial boards for “Infection and Immunity” and “Applied and Environmental Microbiology”. He received the “Tufts Institute for Innovation Inaugural Award” in 2014. He chaired the Research Committee of College of Medicine at USF from 2019 to 2020. In 2018, he was awarded the "Faculty Outstanding Research Achievement Award" at USF. In 2019, he was awarded the "Excellence in Innovation Award" at USF. The research in his laboratory at USF is focused on the pathogenesis of Clostridioides difficile and the development of novel therapeutics including vaccines to prevent / treat C. difficile infection (CDI). C. difficile is a Gram-positive, spore-forming and toxin-producing anaerobic bacterium. It is the most common cause of nosocomial antibiotic-associated diarrhea and the etiologic agent of life-threatening pseudomembranous colitis in the developed world. In the US, C. difficile infection (CDI) caused 223,900 estimated hospitalizations,12,800 deaths and $5 billion healthcare costs in 2017. More alarmingly, C. difficile is classified as an “urgent antibiotic resistant threat” by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). To address these challenges, Sun lab is focusing on following research directions: Antibiotic resistance, physiology, virulence, toxin-antitoxin, two-component systems of C. difficile Innate immune responses to CDI) Development of novel antimicrobials and therapeutics including vaccines against CD