Dr. Tao Sun is a Health Program Specialist in the Division of Neuroscience at NINDS. She transitioned to the Neurodegeneration, Dementia, and Repeat Expansion Disorders (NDR) Cluster from the NINDS Intramural Program in 2022. Dr. Sun provides scientific supports for portfolios that focus on neurodegenerative disorders Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), Huntington's Disease (HD), Ataxias and neuromuscular diseases including Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Spinal Bulbar Muscular Atrophy (SBMA), and Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSPs).
Dr. Sun earned her Ph.D. at the Institute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences, studying the cellular mechanisms of nociception and chronic pain at periphery sensory nerve cells. She then joined NINDS as a postdoctoral fellow, where her research focuses on the molecular mechanisms regulating axonal transport of presynaptic cargoes, mitochondria and lysosomes in various neurodegenerative diseases.