Yang Sun

Dr. Yang Sun MD.PhD. is a Professor of Ophthalmology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Sun is a clinician-scientist with clinical specialty in glaucoma medical and surgical management, as well as cataract surgery. He practices at both Byers Eye Institute at Stanford as well as Palo Alto VA medical center. He is the Laurie Kraus Lacob Faculty Scholar at Stanford Child Health Research Institute. Dr. Sun received his BA in Biophysics from Johns Hopkins University, followed by a MD.PhD. degree from Washington University School of Medicine. He completed Ophthalmology residency at Stanford University and a prestigious Heed fellowship at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has been continuously funded by National Eye Institute and Veterans Administration. Dr. Sun’s research in glaucoma has also been funded by American Glaucoma Society, Lowe Syndrome Association, Knights Templar Eye Foundation, and Matilda Ziegler Foundation. Dr. Sun holds several U.S. patents on novel regulators of eye pressure and is the primary investigator on a number of glaucoma clinical trials. He is a member of Stanford BioX faculty and he was recently elected as a member of American Society of Clinical Investigators.
Dr. Sun studies pediatric diseases of congenital glaucoma and retinal degeneration, in particular with Lowe syndrome and Joubert syndrome. In the laboratory, Dr. Sun's team uses advanced technologies of patient-based iPS cells, CRISPR gene editing, optogenetics, and functional retinal imaging to discover mechanism of disease and develop new treatments for these blinding diseases.