Lab News and Recognition
2026
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| July 2026 | Dr. Sun received another R01 to support the project "Fibronectin Enriched Protein Corona for Enhanced Tumor Targeting of Nanoparticles". Thank NIH/NCI for the support! |
| July 2026 | Dr. Sun was invited to serve as a panel reviewer for DOD grants. |
| July 2026 | Dr. Sun received a Nebraska DHHS LB606 grant to support the project "Eliminating Chemotherapy-Induced Cancer Stemness to Prevent Resistance and Recurrence in Pancreatic Cancer". Thank Nebraska DHHS for the support! |
| July 2026 | Junyi Lin gave an oral presentation at the Controlled Release Society Annual Meeting and Exposition at the Lisbon Congress Centre in Lisbon, Portugal. Well done! |
| July 2026 | Ying gave an oral presentation at The 2nd International Online Conference on Functional Biomaterials. Well done! |
| July 2026 | A review article entitled “Reprogramming hepatocellular carcinoma: Nanomedicine at the crossroads of molecular targets and smart delivery” has been published in Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces with Dr. Sun as a co-corresponding author. Kudos to the Dr. Swidan team! |
| June 2026 | Ying gave an oral presentation at Annual Pharmaceutics Graduate Students Research Meeting (PGSRM), MO. Alaa, Charles and Ashkan gave poster presentations. Well done! |
| June 2026 | Dr. Sun received a Foundation grant (~$960K) to support the project "A Tumor-Targeted Drug Platform to Improve Immunotherapy for Lung Cancer". Thanks to the Anonymous donor for the support! |
| June 2026 | Dr. Sun received Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center Transdisciplinary Research Award as mPI. Thank BCC for the support! |
| June 2026 | Junyi Lin gave an oral presentation at the 5th International Electronic Conference on Cancers (IECC 2026). |
| June 2026 | Alaa gave an oral presentation at The 5th International Electronic Conference on Cancers. Well done! |
| June 2026 | Welcome the PharmD students Jacob and Joy to join our lab as summer interns. |
| May 2026 | Alaa and Ying gave an oral presentation at UNMC College of Pharmacy Research Day. Well done! |
| April 2026 | Junyi Lin gave a post at UNO Chemistry department poster presentation. |
| April 2026 | Dr. Sun gave an invited talk at VA Nebraska Western Iowa Health Care System Research Seminar. |
| March 2026 | Alaa published an abstract in journal of the national comprehensive cancer network, 2026, Volume 24: Issue 3. PCO26-273 https://doi.org/10.6004/jnccn.2025.7389. Congratulations! |
| March 2026 | Alaa gave a poster presentation at National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) annual conference, Orlando, FL. |
| February 2026 | Congratulations to the team that Dr. Sun and Alaa were part of on receiving the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center Outstanding Shark Tank Pitch Award! |
| February 2026 | Dr. Sun gave an invited talk at Physiology Forum at UNMC Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology. |
| February 2026 | Welcome the master student Haqqani to join our lab after rotation. |
| January 2026 | Junyi Lin gave a post at Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center Annual All Scientific Retreat. |
| January 2026 | Dr. Sun was invited for a NIH study section. |
2025
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| December 2025 | An article entitled "Smart Polymeric Nanoparticles for Targeted Delivery and Microenvironment-Responsive Therapy in Pancreatic Cancer" has been published in Smart Materials in Medicine. Congratulations to the first author Narayani! |
| December 2025 | Dr. Sun received UNMC New Investigator Award. |
| November 2025 | Alaa and Ashkan gave poster presentations at Nebraska Center for Women’s Health Research (NCWHR) Symposium, and Alaa received the Best Poster Award! Congratulations! |
| October 2025 | A review article entitled “Cancer Cell Membrane-Coated NPs as a Biomimetic Strategy for Precision Tumor Therapy” has been published in Pharmaceutics. Congratulations to the first author Junyi! |
| October 2025 | Dr. Sun was invited to be a DOD PCRP panel reviewer. |
| September 2025 | Welcome the UNO undergraduate student David to join our lab as a research intern. |
| August 2025 | Welcome Dr. Asmaa Abu Essawy to join our lab as a part-time Research Technologist. |
| July 2025 | Dr. Sun was invited for a DOD BCRP study section. |
| July 2025 | Co-editing with Dr. Alvarez-Berrios and Dr. Liu, Dr. Sun’s Editorial article Harnessing Nanotechnology for Cancer Treatment, 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1651124 has been published. |
| June 2025 | Dr. Sun received BCC Cancer Center High-Risk, High-Reward Pilot Grant (CA036727). |
| May 2025 | Dr. Sun was invited as an Upper Midwest Emerging Scholar to give a seminar talk at Masonic Cancer Center at University of Minnesota. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkM4rTuYG5s&list=PLlFryc8bp1l7F49bti_8izi1QVdy6O8dx&index=11 |
| May 2025 | A review article entitled “Modulating immune cells within pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma via nanomedicine” has been published in Essays in Biochemistry. Congratulations to the first author Junyi! |
| May 2025 | A research article entitled “Rational development of gemcitabine-based nanoplatform for targeting SERPINB9/Granzyme B axis to overcome chemo-immune-resistance” has been published in Nature Communications. Kudos to the collaborative team in PITT. |
| May 2025 | Dr. Sun was invited for a NIH study section. |
| April 2025 | Dr. Sun was invited to give a talk at Advances in Chemistry Research and Development (Chem R&D) Conference at Frankfurt, Germany, in which Nobel Laureate of Chemistry 2022 Prof. Dr. Morten Peter Meldal gave a talk as a plenary speaker |
| March 2025 | Dr. Sun was invited to serve as a Guest Editor in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. |
| February 2025 | Junyi Lin gave a post at 3 Minute Thesis 3MT. |
| February 2025 | Dr. Sun was invited to give a talk at Surgery Research Forum UNMC. |
| February 2025 | Dr. Sun serves as a Guest Editor in Pharmaceutics. |
| January 2025 | Welcome Alaa R Aboushanab to join as PhD student after rotations. |
2024
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| December 2024 | Our research article entitled "YAP/TAZ Inhibitor-Based Drug Delivery System for Selective Tumor Accumulation and Cancer Combination Therapy" has been accepted for publication in Biomacromolecules. Thank all the authors for their important contributions! |
| December 2024 | Welcome Erika A Cone for her rotation in our lab as the PhD student. |
| November 2024 | Dr. Sun was invited to give a talk at Buffet Cancer Center. |
| November 2024 | Dr. Sun was invited for a NIH BBBT study section. |
| October 2024 | Dr. Sun was interviewed by the journal The Scientist. |
| October 2024 | Dr. Sun was invited to give a talk at UNO Chemistry Department Seminar. |
| October 2024 | Dr. Sun was invited to give two talks at ACS Midwest Meeting. |
| October 2024 | A co-authored paper was accepted by Advanced Functional Materials. Congratulations to the first author Haozhe! |
| September 2024 | United States Patent No. US 12,083,185 was granted. |
| September 2024 | Dr. Sun was interviewed for UNMC feature news. |
| August 2024 | Welcome Dr. Wei (Charles) Li to join as a postdoc. |
| August 2024 | Welcome Ying Li and Junyi Lin to join as PhD students. |
| July 2024 | Dr. Sun received an R01 Award to develop combination therapy for enhanced synthetic lethal therapy. Thank NIH/NCI for the support! |
| July 2024 | Welcome Dr. Baolong Chen to join as a postdoc. |
| June 2024 | Dr. Sun was invited for a NIH BBBT study section. |
| June 2024 | We are grateful for receiving the grant support from NE DHHS - LB506 for our siRNA delivery project. |
| May 2024 | Dr. Sun was invited to present her work in the meeting Nebraska Drug Discovery and Development Pipeline (ND3P). |
| May 2024 | Welcome Dr. Narayani Prasad Kar to join as a postdoc. |
| April 2024 | We are grateful for receiving the grant support from Dr. Rob Lewis COBRE grant (NIH/NIGMS P20). |
| March 2024 | Our research article entitled " In situ Formation of Fibronectin-Enriched Protein Corona on Epigenetic Nanocarrier for Enhanced Synthetic Lethal Therapy" has been accepted for publication in Advanced Science. Thank all the authors for their important contributions! |
| March 2024 | A co-authored paper was accepted by Polymers. Congratulations to the first author Ling! |
| February 2024 | Dr. Sun received Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center Pilot Project Award. Thank BCC for the support! |
| January 2024 | Welcome Ashkan Hassankhani Rad to join as the PhD student. Welcome Lucas Kenkel from UNO to join as an undergraduate researcher. |
| January 2024 | United States Patent No. US 11,857,634 was granted. |
2023
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| December 2023 | A co-authored paper was accepted by Nature Communications. Congratulations to the first author Zhangyi! |
| October 2023 | Welcome Md Abu Sufian to join as a non-faculty volunteer. |
| September 2023 | The Sun lab was founded. |