All About Me

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Douglas (Pun To) Yung came to the U.S. to study abroad at UCLA in 2000.  He started out with a pre-med curriculum, double majoring in Electrical Engineering and Math, but ended up doing his graduate study in Bioengineering at Caltech.  During his graduate work, he studied bacterial spores in the Ponce Group at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  He was a recipient of the NASA Postdoctoral Fellowship for 2008 and worked at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California until May 2009.  He has accepted a position at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).

education

Ph.D. Bioengineering, California Institute of Technology, 2008
Thesis: Detection of aerobic bacterial endospores [PDF]

B.S. double major in Electrical Engineering & Mathematics/Applied Science, University of California, Los Angeles, 2003

publications

1. Fast sterility assessment by germinable-endospore biodosimetry. Yung, P.T., Ponce, A. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2008, 74(24), 7669-7674. [PDF]

2. Ponce, A., Connon, S.A., Yung, P.T. Detection and Viability Assessment of Endospore-forming Pathogens. 2008. Appear in Principles of Bacterial Detection: Biosensors, Recognition Receptors and Microsystems, edited by Zourob, M., Springer Science+Business Media, 2008. [Book]

3. Amashukeli, X., Grunthaner, F.J., Patrick, S.B., and Yung, P.T. Subcritical water extractor for Mars analog soil analysis. Astrobiology, 2008, 8(3), 597-604.

4. Yung, P.T., Shafaat, H.S., Connon, S.A. & Ponce, A. Quantification of viable endospores from a Greenland ice core. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 2007, Volume 59, pages 300-306. [PDF]

5. Obenhuber, D.C., Lester, E.D., Yung, P.T., Venkateswaran, K., Ponce, A., Pyle, B. & Roman, M. Airborne endospore bioburden as an indicator of spacecraft cleanliness. SAE International technical paper 2006.

6. Yung, P.T., Lester, E.D., Bearman, G. & Ponce, A. An automated front-end monitor for anthrax surveillance systems based on the rapid detection of airborne endospores. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 2007, 98(4), 864-871. [PDF]

conference proceedings

1. Yung, P.T., Kempf, M.J. & Ponce, A. A Rapid Single Spore Enumeration Assay. Presented at the IEEE Aerospace Conference, March 2006, Big Sky, Montana. [PDF]

2. Yung, P.T., Shafaat, H.S., Lester, E.D. & Ponce, A. Quantification of Bacterial Spores Capable of Germination in GISP2 ice cores using a Novel Endospore Viability Assay. Presented at the International Conference on Alpine and Polar Microbiology, March 2006, Innsbruck, Austria.

3. Yung, P.T., Shafaat, H.S., Connon, S.A., Lester, E.D. & Ponce, A. Quantification of Bacterial Endospores Capable of Germination in Arctic Ice Cores (GISP2) Using Novel Endospore Viability Assays. Presented at the American Society for Microbiology 106th Annual Meeting, May 2006, Orlando, Florida.

4. Yung, P.T., Lester, E.D. & Ponce, A. An Anthrax Smoke Detector: Automated Surveillance of Airborne Endospores. Presented at the American Society for Microbiology 106th Annual Meeting, May 2006, Orlando, Florida.

5. Donald C. Obenhuber, Elizabeth Lester, Pun To Yung, Kasthuri Venkateswaran, Adrian Ponce, Barry Pyle & Monserrate Roman. Airborne Endospore Bioburden as an Indicator of Spacecraft Cleanliness. Presented at the International Conference on Environmental Systems, July 2006.

6. Yung, P.T., Shafaat, H.S., Connon, S.A. & Ponce, A. Quantification of bacterial spores capable of germination in GISP2 ice cores using a novel Endospore Viability Assay. Presented at the 232nd American Chemical Society Meeting, September 10-14, 2006, San Francisco, California.

7. Yung, P.T., Shafaat, H.S., Connon, S.A., Yang, W., Lester, E.D. & Ponce, A. Survival of bacterial spores in extreme environments?Validation and application of a novel endospore viability assay. Presented at the 232nd American Chemical Society Meeting, September 10-14, 2006, San Francisco, California.

8. Yung, P.T., Yang, W. & Ponce, A. Bacterial Endospore Resistance and Germination Characteristics?a Comparison of Lab Strains with Isolates from the Atacama Desert. Presented at the American Society for Microbiology 107th Annual Meeting, May 2007, Toronto, Canada.

9. Yung, P.T., Connon, S.A., Yang, W. & Ponce, A. Longevity of Endospores in Greenland GISP2 Ice Cores. Presented at the American Society for Microbiology 107th Annual Meeting, May 2007, Toronto, Canada.

10. Yang, W.W., Yung, P.T. & Ponce, A. Distinguishing Germination Kinetics of the Endospores of Bacillus and Clostridium. To be presented at the American Society for Microbiology 109th Annual Meeting, May 2009, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

11. Yung, P.T., Sung, W. & Ponce, A. Airborne Endospore Bioburden as an Indicator of Spacecraft Cleanliness. To be presented at the American Society for Microbiology 109th Annual Meeting, May 2009, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

12. Sullivan, C.B., Yung, P.T. & Ponce, A. Oxidizing Effects on Bacterial Spores. To be presented at the American Society for Microbiology 109th Annual Meeting, May 2009, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

13. Gomez, T., Sindhu, K, Lee, P., Oliver, L & Yung, P.T. Integrating Engineering, Modeling and Computation into the Biology Classroom: Development of Multi-disciplinary High School Neuroscience Curricula. To be presented at the American Society for Engineering Education Conference, June 2009, Austin, Texas.