Biography
Po-Yi Ho is an assistant professor at the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies (CIS), School of Science at Westlake University. He received his BS in physics from Yale University in 2014 and his PhD in applied physics from Harvard University in 2019. From 2019 to 2023, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, where he developed mathematical models and experimental model systems to engineer microbial communities. He is broadly interested in biophysics, synthetic biology, and microbial ecology and evolution.
2023 Assistant Professor, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies (CIS), School of Science, Westlake University
2019 Postdoctoral Researcher, Bioengineering, Stanford University
2019 Applied Physics PhD, Harvard University
2014 Physics BS, Yale University
Research
Microbiomes are fascinating complex systems and promising engineering targets for novel therapeutics. The ecological and evolutionary dynamics that govern microbiomes and their functions remain unclear. The Ho Lab searches for quantitative principles in microbial ecology and evolution and applies them to engineer microbiomes. We use tools ranging from mathematical models and computational biology to microbiota assembly experiments and synthetic biology. We are broadly interested in the physics of living systems and synthetic biology. Please visit our website for more information!
Representative Publications
1. Ho P and Huang KC.“Challenges in interpreting functional redundancy and quantifying functional selection in microbial communities.”Cell Syst 2025.
2. Ho P#, Nguyen TH, Sanchez JM, DeFelice BC, and Huang KC#.“Resource competition predicts in vitro assembly of gut bacterial communities.”Nat Microbiol 2024.
3. Newton DP, Ho P#, Huang KC#.“Modulation of antibiotic effects on microbial communities by resource competition.”Nat Commun 2023.
4. Cheng AG*, Ho P*, …, Huang KC, and Fischbach MA.“Design, construction, and in vivo augmentation of a complex gut bacterial community.”Cell 2022.
5. Ho P, Good BH, and Huang KC.“Competition for fluctuating resources reproduces statistics of species abundance over time across wide-ranging microbiotas.”eLife 2022.
6. Ho P, Martins BMC, and Amir A.“A mechanistic model for the regulation of cell division timing by the circadian clock in cyanobacteria.”Biophys J 2020.
7. Ho P, Lin J, and Amir A.“Modeling cell size regulation: From single-cell level statistics to molecular mechanisms and population level effects.”Annu Rev Biophys 2018.
Contact Us
We are always looking for motivated colleagues to join our lab. Given our interdisciplinary research interests, we welcome individuals from various scientific backgrounds. Positions are available at all levels, including undergraduate students, research assistants, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and research scientists. To apply, please send your CV, references, and a brief research statement to poyiho@westlake.edu.cn.
