Lingchong You

Professor of Biomedical Engineering

The You lab uses a combination of mathematical modeling, machine learning, and quantitative experiments to elucidate principles underlying the dynamics of microbial communities in time and space and to control these dynamics for applications in computation, engineering, and medicine.

Appointments and Affiliations

• 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
• Websites:
  • Google Scholar
  • Youlab homepage

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

Quantitative biology, synthetic biology, machine learning, antibiotic resistance, microbiome

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 260L: Modeling Cellular and Molecular Systems
• 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
• BME 792: Continuation of Graduate Independent Study
• CBB 574: Modeling and Engineering Gene Circuits (GE, MC)
• COMPSCI 394: Research Independent Study
• EGR 393: Research Projects in Engineering
• MGM 293: Research Independent Study I
• MGM 593: Research Independent Study
• PHARM 394: Research Independent Study
• PHARM 493: Research Independent Study

In the News

• Machine Learning Is Providing New Insights When the Biology Is Too Complex for Traditional Research (Oct 3, 2019 | Pratt School of Engineering)
• 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

• Kim, K; You, L, Bacterial Aggregation Leads to Collective Elimination., Trends in Microbiology (2020) [10.1016/j.tim.2019.12.001] [abs].
• Zhu, K; Chen, S; Sysoeva, TA; You, L, Universal antibiotic tolerance arising from antibiotic-triggered accumulation of pyocyanin in Pseudomonas aeruginosa., Plos Biology, vol 17 no. 12 (2019) [10.1371/journal.pbio.3000573] [abs].
• Lopatkin, AJ; Stokes, JM; Zheng, EJ; Yang, JH; Takahashi, MK; You, L; Collins, JJ, Bacterial metabolic state more accurately predicts antibiotic lethality than growth rate., Nature Microbiology, vol 4 no. 12 (2019), pp. 2109-2117 [10.1038/s41564-019-0536-0] [abs].
• Tsoi, R; Dai, Z; You, L, Emerging strategies for engineering microbial communities., Biotechnology Advances, vol 37 no. 6 (2019) [10.1016/j.biotechadv.2019.03.011] [abs].
• Dai, Z; Lee, AJ; Roberts, S; Sysoeva, TA; Huang, S; Dzuricky, M; Yang, X; Zhang, X; Liu, Z; Chilkoti, A; You, L, Versatile biomanufacturing through stimulus-responsive cell-material feedback., Nature Chemical Biology, vol 15 no. 10 (2019), pp. 1017-1024 [10.1038/s41589-019-0357-8] [abs].