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Lingchong You

Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Biomedical Engineering
Box 90281, Durham, NC 27708-0281
1381 CIEMAS, 101 Science Drive, Durham, NC 27708

Overview


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.

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Professor of Biomedical Engineering · 2019 - Present Biomedical Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering
James L. Meriam Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering · 2021 - Present Biomedical Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering
Director of the Center for Quantitative Biology and Machine Learning · 2020 - Present Pratt School of Engineering
Professor in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology · 2021 - Present Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Basic Science Departments

In the News


Published December 3, 2024
Research & Innovation Seed Grants Total Nearly $2 Million
Published February 26, 2024
Resistant Bacteria Carry Extra Genes, According to Study
Published February 9, 2023
Synthetic Compartments Stop Pathogens from Sharing Antibiotic Resistance Genes

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Recent Publications


Scaling laws of bacterial and archaeal plasmids.

Journal Article Nat Commun · July 2, 2025 The capacity of a plasmid to express genes is constrained by its length and copy number. However, the interplay between these parameters and their constraints on plasmid evolution have remained elusive due to the absence of comprehensive quantitative analy ... Full text Link to item Cite

An Engineered Prodrug Selectively Suppresses β-Lactam-Resistant Bacteria in a Mixed Microbial Setting.

Journal Article ACS Infect Dis · June 12, 2025 The rise of β-lactam resistance necessitates new strategies to combat bacterial infections. We purposefully engineered the β-lactam prodrug AcephPT to exploit β-lactamase activity to selectively suppress resistant bacteria producing extended-spectrum-β-lac ... Full text Link to item Cite

Population-level amplification of gene regulation by programmable gene transfer.

Journal Article Nature chemical biology · June 2025 Engineering cells to sense and respond to environmental cues often focuses on maximizing gene regulation at the single-cell level. Inspired by population-level control mechanisms like the immune response, we demonstrate dynamic control and amplification of ... Full text Cite
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Recent Grants


Bacterial antibiotic response and population dynamics in microscopic surface wetness

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by US-Israel Binational Science Foundation · 2022 - 2027

Tradeoffs between fitness costs and transfer rates in horizontal gene transfer

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases · 2022 - 2027

NSF Engineering Research Center for Precision Microbiome Engineering (PreMiEr)

ResearchInvestigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2022 - 2027

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Education, Training & Certifications


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