Glycobiology Significant Achievement Award  

The Glycobiology Significant Achievement Award is given annually by Oxford University Press (publisher of Glycobiology) to honor new or mid-career scientists who have made key discoveries during their early careers with the potential to have a substantial impact on the glycoscience community.

Oxford is delighted to present the 2024 Glycobiology Significant Achievement Award to Dr. Ramon C. Sun,Associate Professor, University of Florida. The award will be given to Dr. Sun during the Annual Meeting of the Society for Glycobiology, which will be held in Florida this fall.

Dr. Sun holds the prestigious title of Anne and Oscar Lackner Endowed chair and Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He also directs the Center for Advanced Spatial Biomolecule Research (CASBR) at the University of Florida. Now a leading expert in spatial metabolism, Dr. Sun received this PhD from the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia in 2010 and trained as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University. Dr. Sun’s most notable honors include St. Baldrick’s Scholar 2019 and V-Scholar 2021. His research primarily explores the molecular nexus between complex carbohydrates and cellular metabolism, signaling, and physiology with focus on elucidating special metabolism of neurological disorders and many different forms of cancers.

His laboratory has pioneered several innovative mass spectrometry-based methodologies that enable the profiling and imaging of metabolomes, lipidomes, and complex carbohydrate molecules at near single-cell resolution with precise spatial detail. These methodologies leverage sophisticated machine learning software for data analysis, positioning his lab to generate and test scientific hypotheses using transdisciplinary approaches. These include genetically modified cell lines, mouse models and human specimens, which are crucial in validating his spatial technology-based findings.

Dr. Sun’s recent research has provided foundational insights into how complex carbohydrate metabolism and its dysregulation can influence dementia, pulmonary fibrosis, and different forms of tumors. Notably, his latest publications in Cell Metabolism, EMBO Molecular Medicine, and Nature Communications detailed an advanced methodology to assess spatial metabolism, uncovering critical metabolic channeling and interactions between glycogen and N-linked glycans in brain and lung cancers and their implications for normal versus diseased physiology.

Throughout his career, Dr. Sun has published over 65 manuscripts – 45 since 2019 - in esteemed journals such as Cell Metabolism, Nature Communications, and Science Advances. His seminal contributions have significantly enhanced our understanding of carbohydrate’s roles in chronic and acute diseases, potentially paving the way for the development of more targeted therapies.

Dr. Sun’s lab is currently funded by 5 major awards, 2 R01’s from NCI, 2 R01’s from NIA, and 1 RM1 from NINDS. Under his direction, CASBR is quickly becoming one of the largest spatial metabolomics centers in the world with over 7 employees, supporting over 150 unique projects, with over 30 million dollars in NIH funding.

For more information about Dr. Sun’s research and his laboratory’s work, visit the lab website at imaging-metabolomics.com, the CASBR website at https://casbr.biochem.med.ufl.edu/, or his resource site at https://metavision3d.rc.ufl.edu/.