Ka Yin Leung
Professor, Deputy Head of Biotechnology and Food Engineering Program
Biotechnology and Food Engineering Program
Research Group Website: Environmental Microbiology Lab
Ka Yin Leung is a Professor of Microbiology in Biotechnology and Food Engineering Program at GTIIT. He received his BSA (Hons) and MSc from the University of Saskatchewan and PhD from the University of Guelph, Canada. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the University of Kentucky, USA, where he studied the secretion of proteins of bubonic plague and in the University of British Columbia, Canada, where he studied Salmonella intracellular lifestyle. From 1994 to 2008, he took up a faculty position in the National University of Singapore and also served as Assistant Dean and Deputy Head in Faculty of Science, and Associate Director of Tropical Marine Science Institute. He went back to Canada in 2008 till 2017 and served as Dean for 8 years and as Professor of Biology in Trinity Western University.
Prof. Leung’s research focuses on the study of bacterial fish diseases and their key virulent mechanisms. He is a pioneer and a leader in the discoveries and studies of type III and type VI secretion system (T3SS and T6SS) in Edwardsiella tarda, and T3SS in Aeromonas hydrophila. These two bacteria are the major causes of systemic infections in marine and freshwater fish, respectively. The studies of these two pathogens can also be used as model organisms for food- and water-borne human diseases. Some of the highly cited papers are: Molecular Microbiology 66 (2007): 1192; Microbiology 151 (2005): 2301; Molecular Microbiology (2004) 53: 573; and Infection and Immunity (2004) 72: 1248. His work provides a platform for the studies of fish pathogens as well as the development of fish vaccines and disease resistance in fish. Prof. Leung has taught courses including microbiology and a popular course on biotechnology named Genes and Society, in Singapore, Canada, and China.
Prof. Leung’s Research Group Website: Environmental Microbiology Research Group
- Bacterial Fish Diseases
- Pathogen-Host Interactions
- Type III and Type VI Secretion Systems
- Host Disease Resistance, Fish Microbiota
- Fish Vaccines
Hong Bing Yu, Rasvinder Kaur, Simin Lim, Xian Hui Wang, Ka Yin Leung. 2007. Characterization of extracellular proteins produced by Aeromonas hydrophila AH-1. Proteomics 7:436-449.
Jun Zheng, Ka Yin Leung. 2007. Dissection of a type VI secretion system (T6SS) in Edwardsiella tarda. Molecular Microbiology 66:1192-1206.
Hai Xia Xie, Hong Bing Yu, Jun Zheng, Pin Nie, Leonard J. Foster, Yu-Keung Mok, B.B. Finlay, Ka Yin Leung. 2010. EseG, an effector of the type III secretion system of Edwardsiella tarda triggers microtubule destabilization. Infection and Immunity 78:5011-5021.
Ka Yin Leung, Anthony Siame, Snowball Heather, Yu-Keung Mok. 2011. Type VI secretion regulation: crosstalk and intracellular communication. Current Opinion in Microbiology 14:9-15.
S. Chakraborty, J. Sivaraman, K.Y. Leung, Y.K. Mok. 2011. Two-component PhoB-PhoR regulatory system and ferric uptake regulator sense phosphate and iron to control virulence genes in type III and VI secretion systems of Edwardsiella tarda. Journal of Biological Chemistry 286:39417-39430.
Ka Yin Leung, Anthony Siame, Byron Tenkink, Rebecca Noort, Yu-Keung Mok. 2012. Edwardsiella tarda: virulence mechanisms of an emerging gastroenteritis pathogen. Microbes and Infection 14:26-34.
Hai-Xia Xie, Jin-Fang Lu, Xiu-Jun Yu, Gai-Ling Wang, Ka Yin Leung, Pin Nie. 2015.Identification and functional characterization of the novel Edwardsiella tarda effector EseJ. Infection and Immunity 83:1650-60.
Christopher K. Hobbs, Vanessa L. Porter, Maxwell L.S. Stow, Bupe A. Siame, Herbert H. Tsang, Ka Yin Leung. 2016.Computational approach to predicting species-specific type III secretion system (T3SS) effectors using single and multiple genomes. BMC Genomics 17:1048.
Y. Liu, L. Zhao, M. Yang, K. Yin, X. Zhou, KY. Leung, Q. Liu, Y. Zhang, Q. Wang. 2017. Transcriptomic dissection of the horizontally acquired response regulator EsrB reveals its global regulatory roles in the physiological adaptation and activation of T3SS and the cognate effector repertoire in Edwardsiella piscicida during infection toward turbot. Virulence April 25:1-23.
Guanhua Yang, Gabriel Billings, Troy P. Hubbard, Joseph S. Park, Ka Yin Leung, Qin Liu, Brigid M. Davis, Yuanxing Zhang, Qiyao Wang, Matthew K. Waldor. 2017. Time resolved transposon insertion sequencing reveals genome-wide fitness dynamics during infection. mBio 8:e01581-17.