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YUK FAI LEUNG
| Assistant Professor LILY 2-236 496-3153 CV: Link |
Eye development is orchestrated by scores of genetic pathways and gene families that control cell proliferation, specification and differentiation processes. A thorough understanding of the structure of the network and its regulation provides the foundation for the investigation of abnormal processes that lead to human eye diseases. To this end, we study eye development in zebrafish by various experimental approaches.
The research interests of our lab are currently focused in two directions. First, we hope to identify components of the gene regulatory network that regulate zebrafish eye development by gene expression profiling. Gene expression levels in microdissected eye tissues including retina, retinal pigment epithelium, and lens from wild-type and eye mutant embryos at different stages of development are being measured by microarray analysis or next generation sequencing. Novel statistical and bioinformatic analyses are being built for the identification of the relevant gene regulatory network and gene families. Second, we hope to investigate the connectivity of these candidate genes to elucidate the subcircuits of the gene regulatory network, as well as the relationship of the subcircuits to the eye developmental processes. The subcircuits are being identified by methodologies including Chromatin Immunopreciptation (Chip) – microarrays and/or sequencing analyses (Chip-Chip or Chip-Seq). The identified subcircuits including signal transduction pathways, transcription factor and cell cycle regulator families will be characterized by various genetic, biochemical, molecular, cellular and histological techniques.
Education
Ph.D., Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2002
M.Phil., Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, 1998
B.Sc., Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong 1996
Professional Faculty Research
(Cell, Molecular and Developmental Biology; Neurobiology) Gene Regulatory Network of Zebrafish Eye Development
Awards
Hope for Vision Award 2009-2010
Other Activities
Grant Reviews
University Research Fund, Research Council, University of Leuven, 2007
Faculty Presentations
“Genomic analysis of zebrafish eye development” Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA, USA, November 18, 2008.
“Genomic analysis of zebrafish eye development” Department of Biochemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA, November 11, 2008.
“Genomic analysis of zebrafish eye development” Indiana University School of Medicine Northwest, Gary, IN, USA, October 3, 2008.
“Genomic analysis of zebrafish eye development” Purdue University/University of Alabama-Birmingham NIH Botanicals Research Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA, July 28, 2008.
“Factorial microarray analysis of zebrafish retinal development” Eighth International Meeting on Zebrafish Development & Genetics, Madison, WI, USA, June 26 2008.
“Characterization of Pathways Controlling Zebrafish Retinal Development” Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, October 12, 2007.
“Genomic analysis of zebrafish eye development” Grandround, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and Hong Kong Eye Hospital, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, October 11, 2007.
“Genomic analysis of zebrafish eye development” Department of Biochemistry, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, October 3, 2007.
“Genomic analysis of zebrafish eye development” Department of Anatomy, Hong Kong University, Hong Kong, Septemer 24, 2007.
Conferences and meetings
Third Strategic Conference of Zebrafish Investigators, Monterey, CA, USA, January 24-28, 2009. Poster presentation: "Genomic Analysis of Zebrafish Eye Development".
Marine Biological Laboratory - Gene Regulatory Networks, Woods Hole, MA, USA, October 12-22, 2008.
Gordon Research Conferences Visual System Development, Newport, RI, USA, August 10-15, 2008. Poster presentation: “Factorial microarray analysis of zebrafish retinal development”.
Eighth International Conference on Zebrafish Development and Genetics, Madison, WI, USA, June 25-29, 2008. Oral presentation: “Factorial microarray analysis of zebrafish retinal development”.
Marine Biological Laboratory - Arizona State University History of Biology Seminar, Woods Hole, MA, May 14-21, 2008.
The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Annual Meeting – Eyes on innovation, Fort Lauderdale, FL, April 27-May 1, 2008. Oral presentation: "Cellular expression of Brg1-regulated retinal differentiation genes in wild-type and mutant young retinas".
Gordon Research Conferences Developmental Biology, Andover, NH, June 24-29, 2007. Poster presentation: "Genomic Analysis of Zebrafish Retinal Development".
Meeting of the National Centers of Integrative and Systems Biology 2007, Boston, MA, June 12-14, 2007. Poster presentation "Zebrafish Eye Development as a Multicellular Model for Systems Biology".
The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Annual Meeting – The Aging Eye, Fort Lauderdale, FL, May 6-10, 2007. Poster presentation "Genomic Analysis of Zebrafish Retinal and Retinal Pigment Epithelium Development".
Ad hoc reviewer for the following journals and book publisher:
- Bioinformatics
- Biotechniques
- BMC Bioinformatics
- BMC Developmental Biology
- BMC Genomics
- Briefings in Bioinformatics
- Expert Opinion for Drug Discovery
- IEEE Computer on bioinformatics software systems
- IEEE Transactions on Image Processing
- Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science
- Journal of Real Time Imaging - Special Issue on Imaging in Bioinformatics
- Journal of VLSI Signal Processing - Special Issue on Genomic Signal
- Processing, Molecular Biotechnology
- Molecular Vision (3 times)
- Physiological Genomics
- Thrombosis Research
- Wiley (book proposal)