Changyang Linghu, Ph.D.

We are on a mission to unravel emergent properties of cell populations that drive essential mammalian functions, via scalable and multiplexable interrogation of cell physiology in vivo.

Research Areas:

Bio-Micro Nanotechnology and Molecular Engineering, Biomaterials, Biomechanics, Biomedical Computation and Modeling, Biomedical Imaging, Biomedical Imaging and Optics, Biomedical Optics, Functional and Molecular Imaging, Molecular and Cellular Biomechanics, Neural Engineering, Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials

• C. Linghu, B. An, M. Shpokayte, O. T. Celiker, N. Shmoel, R. Zhang, C. Zhang, D. Park, W. M. Park, S. Ramirez and E. S. Boyden, ‘Recording of cellular physiological histories along optically readable self-assembling protein chains’, Nature Biotechnology, 2023 (highlighted in Nature Methods, Nature Reviews Genetics, and Nature Biotechnology)
• Summary: biological information over time, such as gene expression history, can be recorded onto the ordered structure of intracellular protein self-assembly for scalable readout in large cell populations.
• C. Linghu, I. Chen, D. Tanese, V. Zampini and O. A. Shemesh, ‘Single cell resolution optogenetics via expression of soma-targeted rhodopsins’, Methods in Molecular Biology, 2022
• Summary: methods for temporally precise single-cell resolution optogenetics in tissue and in the living brain.
• C. Linghu*, S. L. Johnson*, P. A. Valdes, O. A. Shemesh, W. M. Park, D. Park, K. D. Piatkevich, A. T. Wassie, Y. Liu, B. An, S. A. Barnes, O. T. Celiker, C.-C. Yao, C.-C. Yu, R. Wang, K. P. Adamala, M. F. Bear, A. E. Keating and E. S. Boyden, ‘Spatial multiplexing of fluorescent reporters for imaging signaling network dynamics’, Cell , 2020 (featured in the cover story)
• Summary: clustering fluorescent reporters at random points in cells enables many biological signals to be recorded at once.
• O. A. Shemesh*, C. Linghu*, K. D. Piatkevich*, D. Goodwin, O. T. Celiker, H. J. Gritton, M. F. Romano, R. Gao, C.-C. Yu, H.-A. Tseng, S. Bensussen, S. Narayan, C. Yang, L. Freifeld, C. A. Siciliano, I. Gupta, J. Wang, N. Pak, Y. G. Yoon, J. F.P. Ullmann, B. Guner-Ataman, H. Noamany, Z. R. Sheinkopf, W. M. Park, S. Asano, A. E. Keating, J. S. Trimmer, J. Reimer, A. S. Tolias, M. F. Bear, K. M. Tye, X. Han, M. B. Ahrens and E. S. Boyden, ‘Precision calcium imaging of dense neural populations via a cell-body-targeted calcium indicator’, Neuron, 2020 (highlighted in Nature Reviews Neuroscience)
• Summary: restricting fluorescent reporters to the cell body reduces neuropil crosstalk, reduces artifactual spikes and correlations, and increases signal-to-noise ratio in calcium imaging of neural populations in vivo.
• K. D. Piatkevich*, E. E. Jung*, C. Straub, C. Linghu, D. Park, H. J. Suk, D. R. Hochbaum, D. Goodwin, E. Pnevmatikakis, N. Pak, T. Kawashima, C. T. Yang, J. L. Rhoades, O. A. Shemesh, S. Asano, Y. G. Yoon, L. Freifeld, J. L. Saulnier, C. Riegler, F. Engert, T. Hughes, M. Drobizhev, B. Szabo, M. B. Ahrens, S. W. Flavell, B. L. Sabatini and E. S. Boyden, ‘A robotic multidimensional directed evolution approach applied to fluorescent voltage reporters’, Nature Chemical Biology, 2018
• Summary: a robotic multidimensional screening system for mammalian cells enables rapid development of bright fluorescent proteins and faithful fluorescent voltage indicators.
• O. A. Shemesh *, D. Tanese*, V. Zampini*, C. Linghu, K. D. Piatkevich, E. Ronzitti, E. Papagiakoumou, E. S. Boyden† and V. Emiliani†, ‘Temporally precise single-cell resolution optogenetics’, Nature Neuroscience, 2017
• Summary: soma-targeted opsins, together with computer-generated holography systems, enable temporally precise, single-cell resolution optogenetics.
• H. Wu, C. Linghu, H. Lv and H. Qian, ‘Graphene applications in electronic and optoelectronic devices and circuits’, Chinese Physics B, 2013
• Summary: a review of how graphene’s unique properties can be utilized towards better electronic and optoelectronic systems.
• W. Zhu, C. Linghu, J. Zhang, L. Zhang and Z. Yu, ‘Compact model of graphene field effect transistors and its application in circuit simulation of RF mixer consisting of GFETs and CMOS’, Proceedings of International Conference on Simulation of Semiconductor Processes and Devices (SISPAD), 2012
• Summary: modeling graphene-based transistors helps to design integrated circuits that contain both graphene-based transistors and conventional semiconductor transistors.

• Writing cellular history in protein chains
• A cell’s growth rings
• Optical filament recording of cellular events
• Recording the Symphony of Cellular Signals That Drive Biology
• Soma trapping sharpens signals
• Cells Encouraged to Keep Physiological Diaries
• Varied Cell Signals Recorded at Once with Spatial Multiplexing
• Live Neural Activity Imaging Accuracy Improved Using New Calcium Indicator

• Biological Sciences Scholar (BSSP) by University of Michigan (2022)
• MIT Spot Award (2022)
• MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35 (TR35) China (2021)
• Bioengineering Rising Star Speaker by Princeton University (2021)
• J. Douglas Tan Postdoctoral Fellow (2020)
• McGovern Graduate Fellow (2018)
• MIT Presidential Fellow, Irwin Mark Jacobs and Joan Klein Jacobs (2013)