SUN LAB
Tuberculosis
Immunity
Drug Discovery
About
We are a cellular microbiology lab studying how bacterial pathogens evade our immune system, using advanced imaging, flow cytometry, multi-omics and functional genomics approaches. Our research provides unique promise to develop host-directed therapeutic approaches to combating emerging and pandemic-level threats such as tuberculosis.
Principal Investigator
Jim obtained his BSc (2006) and PhD (2012) from the University of British Columbia, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Jim was recruited to the University of Ottawa, where he established a dynamic TB research program from 2017-2023. In January 2024, Jim joined the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at UBC. Jim's most significant research contributions has revealed key insights to how Mycobacterium tuberculosis evades our immune response, development of novel treatments for pathogenic infections, and the discovery of the tuberculosis necrotizing toxin. His research has important implications for advancing host-directed therapies to treat tuberculosis. Jim has been awarded multiple early career research awards, including from Pfizer Canada, Canadian Society for Immunology, ASM, and Lung Health Foundation.
The Sun Lab has officially started at UBC!
We are super excited to have Dr. Grace Choi join our team at UBC MBIM as a Research Associate! Dr. Peng (Allen) Xu and Jake Felker have also moved to UBC with us! Everyone is hard at work preparing the lab so that we can start our research soon!
Media release for our new exciting TAIMA TB wastewater monitoring study