The academic study of Professor Hongzhi Sun and his colleagues focused on the regulatory mechanism of endocrine metabolism. One novel discovery in their studies is that IRS could translocate to the nuclei and exhibit a variety of critical nuclear functions, which will extend our understanding of IRS actions during the non-classical process of insulin pathway. Another recent one is that they identified the important regulation of autophagy on insulin resistance and metabolic disturbance. In addition, they studied the critical role of bone as an important endocrine regulator in glucose and lipid metabolism. They found that the osteoblast-specific protein could attenuate ER stress and rescue impaired insulin sensitivity. These studies potentiated both scientific and therapeutic application of bone-derived hormones in metabolic disease. During these studies, they have published more than 50 papers in academic journals such as Autophagy, Cancer Research, Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, Endocrinology, Molecular Endocrinology, JBC, Cell Research. These papers were cited more than 1190 times, and some publications were cited by the top scientific journals such as Nature Reviews Endocrinology, Nature Protocols and Endocrine Reviews. Dr. Sun group won the prize of Shaanxi Provincial Education Science and Technology Award. In recent years, they have undertaken the National Key Research and Development Program, the National Natural Science Fund, “New Century Excellent Talents” Supporting Plan from Education Ministry and "Tengfei Special Professor" supporting project from Xi'an Jiaotong University. Members of Dr. Sun group include associate professor Huixia Li, assistant professor Xinxin Jin, and 16 graduated postgraduates or graduate students.