About

Yu Sun is an assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, with a joint appointment at the Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (DSAI) Institute. His research focuses on developing advanced algorithms and mathematical foundations for computational imaging. By integrating techniques from machine learning, computer vision, optimization, probability theory, and physics, he aims to create a comprehensive framework for reliably and interpretably incorporating artificial intelligence into imaging systems, thereby unlocking novel capabilities that surpass the limitations of traditional methods. Before joining Johns Hopkins, Sun was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Computing and Mathematical Sciences at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He earned his BEng in electronics and information from Sichuan University in 2015 and his PhD in computer science from Washington University in St. Louis in 2022. His doctoral dissertation was awarded the Turner Dissertation Award for contributions to computational imaging and machine learning. Sun is a member of the IEEE, actively serving on the IEEE Signal Processing Society’s Computational Imaging Technical Committee, and is a consultant associate editor for the IEEE Open Journal of Signal Processing.

Research topics

• Internal medicine
• Medicine
• Virology
• Surgery
• Intensive care medicine

Selected publications

• Three-field <i>versus</i> two-field lymphadenectomy in transthoracic oesophagectomy for oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma: short-term outcomes of a randomized clinical trial

  British journal of surgery · 2020 · 39 citations

  • Medicine
  • Surgery
  • Internal medicine

  BACKGROUND: The benefit and harm of three-field lymphadenectomy for oesophageal cancer are still unknown. The aim of this study was to compare overall survival and morbidity and mortality between three- and two-field lymphadenectomy in patients with oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma. METHODS: Between March 2013 and November 2016, patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the middle or distal oesophagus were assigned randomly to open oesophagectomy with three-field (cervical-thoracic-abdominal) or two-field (thoracic-abdominal) lymphadenectomy. No chemo(radio) therapy was given before surgery. This paper reports on the secondary outcomes of the study: pathology and surgical complications. RESULTS: Some 400 patients were randomized, 200 in each group. A median of 37 (i.q.r. 30-49) lymph nodes were dissected in the three-field group, compared with 24 (18-30) in the two-field group (P < 0·001). Some 43 of 200 patients (21·5 per cent) in the three-field group had cervical lymph node metastasis. More patients in the three-field group had pN3 disease: 21 of 200 (10·5 per cent) versus 10 of 200 (5·0 per cent) (P = 0·040). The rate and severity of postoperative complications were comparable between the two groups, except that six patients in the three-field arm needed reintubation compared with none in the two-field group (3·0 versus 0 per cent; P = 0·030). The 90-day mortality rate was 0 per cent in the three-field group and 0·5 per cent (1 patient) in the two-field group (P = 1·000). CONCLUSION: Oesophagectomy with three-field lymphadenectomy increased the number of lymph nodes dissected and led to stage migration owing to a 21·5 per cent rate of cervical lymph node metastasis. Postoperative complications were largely comparable between two- and three-field lymphadenectomy. Registration number: NCT01807936 ( https://www.clinicaltrials.gov).

  DOI

• Observational Study of Hydroxychloroquine in Hospitalized Patients with Covid-19

  New England Journal of Medicine · 2020 · 1733 citations

  • Medicine
  • Internal medicine
  • Intensive care medicine

  BACKGROUND: Hydroxychloroquine has been widely administered to patients with Covid-19 without robust evidence supporting its use. METHODS: We examined the association between hydroxychloroquine use and intubation or death at a large medical center in New York City. Data were obtained regarding consecutive patients hospitalized with Covid-19, excluding those who were intubated, died, or discharged within 24 hours after presentation to the emergency department (study baseline). The primary end point was a composite of intubation or death in a time-to-event analysis. We compared outcomes in patients who received hydroxychloroquine with those in patients who did not, using a multivariable Cox model with inverse probability weighting according to the propensity score. RESULTS: Of 1446 consecutive patients, 70 patients were intubated, died, or discharged within 24 hours after presentation and were excluded from the analysis. Of the remaining 1376 patients, during a median follow-up of 22.5 days, 811 (58.9%) received hydroxychloroquine (600 mg twice on day 1, then 400 mg daily for a median of 5 days); 45.8% of the patients were treated within 24 hours after presentation to the emergency department, and 85.9% within 48 hours. Hydroxychloroquine-treated patients were more severely ill at baseline than those who did not receive hydroxychloroquine (median ratio of partial pressure of arterial oxygen to the fraction of inspired oxygen, 223 vs. 360). Overall, 346 patients (25.1%) had a primary end-point event (180 patients were intubated, of whom 66 subsequently died, and 166 died without intubation). In the main analysis, there was no significant association between hydroxychloroquine use and intubation or death (hazard ratio, 1.04, 95% confidence interval, 0.82 to 1.32). Results were similar in multiple sensitivity analyses. CONCLUSIONS: In this observational study involving patients with Covid-19 who had been admitted to the hospital, hydroxychloroquine administration was not associated with either a greatly lowered or an increased risk of the composite end point of intubation or death. Randomized, controlled trials of hydroxychloroquine in patients with Covid-19 are needed. (Funded by the National Institutes of Health.).

  DOI

Frequent coauthors

• Yingjian Zhang

  First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Science and Technology

  28 shared

• Zhongyi Yang

  28 shared

• Chiung‐Yu Huang

  University of California, San Francisco

  26 shared

• Jing Xue

  19 shared

• Huiyu Yuan

  18 shared

• Ji‐Zheng He

  Fujian Normal University

  17 shared

• Ting‐Hua Wang

  Sichuan University

  17 shared

• R. Graham Barr

  Columbia University Irving Medical Center

  16 shared

Awards & honors

• Turner Dissertation Award
• NSF CAREER Award
• CPAL Rising Stars Award

Similar researchers at Johns Hopkins University

• Richard Huganirh-210
• Steven L. Salzbergh-191
• Arturo Casadevallh-152
• Peter Campochiaroh-139
• Alan Yuilleh-134