Lingchong You

Paul Ruffin Scarborough Associate Professor of Engineering

Dr. You's research interest focus on computational systems biology & synthetic biology, including mathematical modeling of cellular networks; mechanisms of information processing by gene networks; design, modeling and construction of robust gene networks for applications in engineering and medicine.

Appointments and Affiliations

• Paul Ruffin Scarborough Associate Professor of Engineering
• Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
• Associate Professor in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology

Contact Information

• Office Location: 2355 CIEMAS, 101 Science Drive, Durham, NC 27708
• Office Phone: (919) 660-8408
• Email Address:
• Websites:
  • Google Scholar
  • Website

Education

• Ph.D. University of Wisconsin at Madison, 2002
• M.S. University of Science and Technology of China (China), 1997
• B.S.E. Chengdu University of Science and Technology (China), 1994

Research Interests

Computational systems biology & synthetic biology, including mathematical modeling of cellular networks; mechanisms of information processing by gene networks; design, modeling and construction of robust gene networks for applications in engineering and medicine.

Awards, Honors, and Distinctions

• Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program. National Science Foundation. 2010
• Fellowships for Science and Engineering. David and Lucile Packard Foundation. 2006

Courses Taught

• BME 394: Projects in Biomedical Engineering (GE)
• BME 493: Projects in Biomedical Engineering (GE)
• BME 494: Projects in Biomedical Engineering (GE)
• BME 574: Modeling and Engineering Gene Circuits (GE, MC)
• BME 590: Special Topics in Biomedical Engineering
• BME 791: Graduate Independent Study
• COMPSCI 391: Independent Study
• COMPSCI 394: Research Independent Study
• EGR 393: Research Projects in Engineering
• ISS 391: Bass Connections in Information Science and Culture: Independent Study Project
• MGM 293: Research Independent Study I
• MGM 593: Research Independent Study
• PHARM 394: Research Independent Study
• PHARM 493: Research Independent Study

In the News

• Distinguishing Resistance from Resilience to Prolong Antibiotic Potency (Dec 5, 2018 | Pratt School of Engineering)
• New Tool Tells Bioengineers When to Build Microbial Teams (Feb 21, 2018 | Pratt School of Engineering)
• Where Are All the Germs? Students Explore Duke's Microbiome (Dec 7, 2017 | Center for Genomic and Computational Biology)
• Lingchong You: Tales of the genetically altered, superhero bacteria swarmbot (May 2, 2016 | WFDD-Winston-Salem’s “SciWorks Radio”)
• Time Cues Help Keep Humans Looking Human (Apr 25, 2016)
• Antibiotics Don't Promote Swapping of Resistance Genes (Apr 11, 2016)
• Biologists turn bacteria into 'swarmbots' (Mar 2, 2016 | Gizmodo)
• Bioengineers Design 'Swarmbot' Cells That Die If They Leave the Confines of Their Capsule (Feb 29, 2016)
• Why Do Dividing Cells End Up the Same Size? (Jun 4, 2015)
• Lingchong You comments: Paper test can detect Ebola strains (Oct 27, 2014 | BBC News)
• Dispersal Patterns Key to Invasive Species' Success (Jan 21, 2014)
• Chinese-Americans protest Kimmel skit in front of ABC station in downtown Raleigh (Nov 11, 2013 | The News & Observer)
• Growing Bacteria Keep Time, Know Their Place (Oct 8, 2013)

Representative Publications

• Meredith, HR; Andreani, V; Ma, HR; Lopatkin, AJ; Lee, AJ; Anderson, DJ; Batt, G; You, L, Applying ecological resistance and resilience to dissect bacterial antibiotic responses., Science Advances, vol 4 no. 12 (2018) [10.1126/sciadv.aau1873] [abs].
• Dong, P; Maddali, MV; Srimani, JK; Thélot, F; Nevins, JR; Mathey-Prevot, B; You, L, Author Correction: Division of labour between Myc and G1 cyclins in cell cycle commitment and pace control., Nature Communications, vol 9 no. 1 (2018) [10.1038/s41467-018-07169-y] [abs].
• You, L; Takano, E, Synthetic Biology: Reports from CSHA 2016 and More., Biotechnology Journal, vol 13 no. 5 (2018) [10.1002/biot.201800160] [abs].
• Lee, AJ; Wang, S; Meredith, HR; Zhuang, B; Dai, Z; You, L, Robust, linear correlations between growth rates and β-lactam-mediated lysis rates., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol 115 no. 16 (2018), pp. 4069-4074 [10.1073/pnas.1719504115] [abs].
• Tsoi, R; Wu, F; Zhang, C; Bewick, S; Karig, D; You, L, Metabolic division of labor in microbial systems., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol 115 no. 10 (2018), pp. 2526-2531 [10.1073/pnas.1716888115] [abs].