Sun Nyunt Wai is Professor of Medical Microbial Pathogenesis and conducts research on the properties of pathogenic bacteria at the molecular level.
My research aims to unravel mechanisms in the interaction between microbes and host cells to better understand the causes of infectious diseases and to find new opportunities to prevent and cure them. My research group has shown, among other things, how small membrane vesicles released from bacteria, affect host cells as they contain specific proteins and other macromolecules that can have an effect on the host's immune system and also the cellular signaling mechanisms that play a major role in tumor formation and cancer.
I am a member of the research consortium Umeå Centre for Microbial Research (UCMR), which constitutes the scientific environment where The Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS) was established. As a representative of MIMS, I have participated in international recruitments that are carried out within the framework of The Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine when new group leaders are linked to the various nodes in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Within MIMS, I have conducted research collaborations that have resulted in co-publications of scientific articles with several of the young group leaders Jörgen Johansson, Richard Lundmark, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Andrea Puhar.
Exploring modulation of host cell signaling mediated by secreted bacterial factors.