Lectures and seminars OnkPat Extra Seminar: Spatiotemporal multiomics uncover tumor ecosystem dynamics during metastatic colonization

Hosts: Arne Östman and Linglong Huang.

Bio

Yunfan Sun, M.D., Ph.D., is Deputy Director and Associate Chief Surgeon in the Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery and Liver Transplantation at Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, and Office Director and Associate Professor (PhD Supervisor) at the Liver Cancer Institute, Fudan University. He completed his surgical residency and fellowship training in hepatobiliary surgery and liver transplantation at Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, where he also obtained his Ph.D. in General Surgery.

As a surgeon-scientist specializing in hepatobiliary oncology, his research integrates clinical surgical insights with cutting-edge spatial-omics and in vivo functional genomics to dissect the mechanisms of liver cancer progression and metastasis. His work focuses on tumor ecosystem dynamics during metastatic colonization, mechanisms of immunotherapy resistance, and translation of high-resolution data into tools for early diagnosis and precision immunotherapy. He has published as first/corresponding author in Cell, Science, Cancer Cell, Journal of Hepatology, Hepatology, and Clinical Cancer Research, with multiple ESI Highly Cited Papers.

He serves as an active member of ILCA, CSCO, ASCO, ESMO, and AACR. His honors include the National Science and Technology Progress Award (second class, 2021), Shanghai Natural Science Award (first class, 2024), Shanghai Science and Technology Progress Award (first class, 2019), the 12th Shanghai Science and Technology Youth Elite Award (2023), and the Silver Snake Award (2025), the highest medical honor in Shanghai's healthcare system.

Selected publications

Spatiotemporal multiomics uncover tumor ecosystem dynamics during metastatic colonization.
Sun Y, Zhong Y, Liu S, Zhang Z, Wang C, Liu Y, Chen J, Guo W, Gu X, Rao K, Wang Z, Cao M, Wang Y, Huang W, Zou X, Chen X, Qiu S, Shi Y, Sun H, Huang X, Wang Y, Wang J, Wu Z, Tian R, Zhang Y, Gu J, Jiang M, Bai Y, Li G, Xie M, Xi F, Peng L, Liu S, Yang S, Zhang Y, Esteban MA, Jin X, Chen A, Wang J, Cang Y, Peng DH, Xu X, Zhou J, Wu L, Fan J, Science 2026 Jul;393(6810):eadz7928

Tumor-Infiltrating mregDCs Restrain Anti-Tumor Immunity in Early Relapse HCC.
Zhang Z, Ding L, Zhong Y, Feng H, Huang L, Huang W, Wang C, Östman A, Wang B, Zhou J, Fan J, Guo W, Wu L, Sun Y, Adv Sci (Weinh) 2026 Aug;13(45):e75695

Cancer cells co-opt an inter-organ neuroimmune circuit to escape immune surveillance.
Zhang Y, Guo Y, Liu Z, Sun Y, Yang X, Chen M, Feng G, Lin C, Wang Y, Zhang Z, Zhu Y, Ye J, Liu J, Shi J, Zhou X, Han Q, Liu Y, Jiang Q, Yu Y, Wang X, Zhang C, Sun Y, Zhou J, Fan J, Ji T
Cell 2025 Nov;188(24):6754-6773.e29

Loss of SGK1 supports metastatic colonization in hepatocellular carcinoma by promoting resistance to T cell-mediated immunity.
Zhang Z, Geng C, Song M, Liang H, Zhou K, Liu Y, Wu J, Huang X, Zhou J, Fan J, Peng DH, Zhang L, Cang Y, Sun Y
J Hepatol 2025 Aug;83(2):397-410

Integrated multi-omics profiling to dissect the spatiotemporal evolution of metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma.
Sun Y, Wu P, Zhang Z, Wang Z, Zhou K, Song M, Ji Y, Zang F, Lou L, Rao K, Wang P, Gu Y, Gu J, Lu B, Chen L, Pan X, Zhao X, Peng L, Liu D, Chen X, Wu K, Lin P, Wu L, Su Y, Du M, Hou Y, Yang X, Qiu S, Shi Y, Sun H, Zhou J, Huang X, Peng DH, Zhang L, Fan J
Cancer Cell 2024 Jan;42(1):135-156.e17

Single-cell landscape of the ecosystem in early-relapse hepatocellular carcinoma.
Sun Y, Wu L, Zhong Y, Zhou K, Hou Y, Wang Z, Zhang Z, Xie J, Wang C, Chen D, Huang Y, Wei X, Shi Y, Zhao Z, Li Y, Guo Z, Yu Q, Xu L, Volpe G, Qiu S, Zhou J, Ward C, Sun H, Yin Y, Xu X, Wang X, Esteban MA, Yang H, Wang J, Dean M, Zhang Y, Liu S, Yang X, Fan J
Cell 2021 Jan;184(2):404-421.e16

Circulating stem cell-like epithelial cell adhesion molecule-positive tumor cells indicate poor prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma after curative resection.
Sun YF, Xu Y, Yang XR, Guo W, Zhang X, Qiu SJ, Shi RY, Hu B, Zhou J, Fan J
Hepatology 2013 Apr;57(4):1458-68