Yuk Fai Leung

Active Mentor - currently hosting PULSe students for laboratory rotations and recruiting PULSe students into the laboratory; serves on preliminary exam committees

Current Research Interests:

Selected Publications:

A. Drug Discovery

Ganzen L, Venkatraman P, Pang CP, Leung YF, Zhang M. Utilizing Zebrafish Visual Behaviors in Drug Screening for Retinal Degeneration. Int J Mol Sci. 2017 Jun 2;18(6). pii: E1185.

Zhang L, Xiang L, Liu Y, Venkatraman P, Chong L, Cho J, Bonilla S, Jin ZB, Pang CP, Ko KM, Ma P, Zhang M, Leung YF. A Naturally-Derived Compound Schisandrin B Enhanced Light Sensation in the pde6c Zebrafish Model of Retinal Degeneration. PLoS One. 2016 Mar 1;11(3):e0149663.

Zhang L, Chong L, Cho J, Liao PC, Shen F, Leung YF. Drug Screening to Treat Early-Onset Eye Diseases: Can Zebrafish Expedite the Discovery? Asia Pac J Ophthalmol (Phila). 2012 Nov-Dec;1(6):374-83.

B. Behavioural Data Analysis for Drug Discovery

Xie R, Zhang M, Venkatraman P, Zhang X, Zhang G, Carmer R, Kantola SA, Pang CP, Ma P, Zhang M, Zhong W, Leung YF. Normalization of large-scale behavioural data collected from zebrafish. PLoS One. 2019 Feb 15;14(2):e0212234.

Liu Y, Ma P, Cassidy PA, Carmer R, Zhang G, Venkatraman P, Brown SA, Pang CP, Zhong W, Zhang M, Leung YF. Statistical Analysis of Zebrafish Locomotor Behaviour by Generalized Linear Mixed Models. Sci Rep. 2017 Jun 7;7(1):2937.

Gao Y, Zhang G, Jelfs B, Carmer R, Venkatraman P, Ghadami M, Brown SA, Pang CP, Leung YF, Chan RH, Zhang M. Computational classification of different wild-type zebrafish strains based on their variation in light-induced locomotor response. Comput Biol Med. 2016 Feb 1;69:1-9.

Liu Y, Carmer R, Zhang G, Venkatraman P, Brown SA, Pang CP, Zhang M, Ma P, Leung YF. Statistical analysis of zebrafish locomotor response. PLOS ONE. 2015; 10(10): e0139521.

Gao Y, Chan RHM, Chow TWS, Zhang L, Bonilla S, Pang CP, Zhang M, Leung YF. A high-throughput zebrafish screening method for visual mutants by light-induced locomotor response. IEEE/ACM Trans Comput Biol Bioinform. 2014 Jul-Aug;11:693-701

C. Characterization of Retinal Degeneration Models

Zhang L, Zhang X, Zhang G, Pang CP, Leung YF, Zhang M, Zhong W. Expression profiling of the retina of pde6c, a zebrafish model of retinal degeneration. Sci Data. 2017 Dec 12;4:170182.

Zhang L, Bonilla S, Zhang Y, Leung YF. p35 promotes the differentiation of amacrine cell subtype in the zebrafish retina under the regulation of egr1.

Dev Dyn. 2014 Feb;243(2):315-23. Zhang L, Ma P, Collery R, Trowbridge S, Zhang M, Zhong W, Leung YF. Expression profiling of the RPE in zebrafish smarca4 mutant revealed altered signals that potentially affect RPE and retinal differentiation. Mol Vis. 2014 Jan 6;20:56-72.

Zhang Y, Bonilla S, Chong L, Leung YF. Irx7, a Smarca4-regulated gene for retinal differentiation, regulates other genes controlled by Smarca4 in zebrafish retinas. Gene Expr Patterns. 2013 Jun-Jul;13:177-82.

Zhang L, Cho J, Ptak D, Leung YF. The role of egr1 in early zebrafish retinogenesis. PLOS ONE. 2013; 8(2): e56108. Li Z, Zhang L, Leung YF. Use of the zebrafish model to study refractive error. Expert Rev Ophthalmol. 2013; 8(1):1-3. (Invited Editorial Article)

Li Z, Ptak D, Zhang L, Walls EK, Zhong W, Leung YF. Phenylthiourea specifically reduces zebrafish eye size. PLoS ONE. 2012;7(6):e40132. Zhang Y, Yang Y, Trujillo CM, Zhong W, Leung YF. The expression of irx7 in the inner nuclear layer of zebrafish retina is essential for a proper development of both inner and outer nuclear layers and formation of retinal lamination. PLoS ONE. 2012;7(4): e36145.

Hensley MR, Hassenplug E, McPhail R, Leung YF. ZeBase: An open-source relational database for zebrafish laboratories. Zebrafish. 2012;9(1):44-9.

Hensley MR, Emran F, Bonilla S, Zhang L, Zhong W, Grosu P, Dowling JE, Leung YF. Cellular Expression of Smarca4 (Brg1)-regulated Genes in Zebrafish Retinas. BMC Dev Biol. 2011 Jul 14;11(1):45.

Zhang L, Leung YF. Microdissection of Zebrafish Embryonic Eye Tissues. J. Vis. Exp. 2010; 40. pii: 2028. Leung, Y.F., Ma, P., Link, B.A., Dowling, J.E. 2008. Factorial microarray analysis of zebrafish retinal development. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 105. 35. 12909-12914. Leung, Y. F., Ma, P., Dowling, J. E. 2007. Gene expression profiling of zebrafish embryonic retinal pigment epithelium in vivo. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 48. 2. 881-890.

Leung, Y. F., Dowling, J. E. 2005. Gene expression profiling of zebrafish embryonic retina. Zebrafish. 2. 4. 269-283