Gianluca GRENCI
Research Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, National University of Singapore
Facility Manager, Nano and Microfabrication Core
mbigg@nus.edu.sg
Level 10 T-Lab
National University of Singapore
5A Engineering Drive 1
Singapore 117411
The Crown JeWell of organoid imaging
An interdisciplinary team from MBI combined imaging, microfabrication, and biology to develop JeWells - an innovative platform for growing and imaging organoids in 3D. Learn more
The rise of spectro-microscopes
A recent study from the Grenci Lab at the Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore has described a new, highly-sensitive IR spectroscopy technique that overcomes the limitations of existing techniques by utilizing optical components that are commonly used in existing visible light imaging techniques. Learn more
soSPIM Developed at MBI
Microfabrication leads to a new microscopy method
Gianluca Grenci
Research Assistant Professor, Facility Manager
Research Interests
Microfluidics, Micro-optical systems for live cell imaging
Our laboratory is primarily interested in the application of micro/nano fabrication technology to biological science. We exploit standard and advanced micro-fabrication tools in order to design and produce systems and devices for cell culturing and imaging. Examples of such devices are: topographically and/or chemically micro-textured environments, microfluidic devices, micro-optical systems and more.
We are also interested in developing microfluidic devices for FTIR spectromicroscopy of living cells. FTIR is an imaging technique that is intrinsically label-free and requires minimal sample preparation; when coupled with microscopy and high brilliance IR sources it allows the acquisition of chemical maps at a resolution which is diffraction limited. Absorption of IR photons induces very low or no damage at all, therefore it is in principle possible to observe for prolonged time the behaviour of living cells. Our research activity is intended to develope microfludic platforms suitable for FTIR (key parameters are optical transparency and low IR absorption) while keeping cells alive and healthy; a beneficial feature provided by micro-fabrication approach is the possibility to control of the chemical environment at the micro-scale.
Research Areas
Micro/nano engineering, microfluidic, FTIR
Biography
Dr Gianluca Grenci joined MBI in 2012 as a research fellow and head of the Micro Fabrication Core facility. Previously he was employed at the LILIT micro/nano fabrication group (IOM-CNR, Trieste, IT) for a total of 6 years, during which he was mainly involved in the design and fabrication of microfluidic devices for synchrotron-light related spectroscopic techniques, such as SAXS and FTIR. He thus developed extensive practical knowledge on all the major lithographic technologies (UV and EB lithography, wet/dry etching, soft-lithography, thin films deposition), plus some less usual and/or more advanced technique, such as X-ray Lithography and LIGA.
He did his PhD in the field of applied superconductivity, in a project aimed to develop a current cryo-comparator (CCC) using high critical temperature superconductors of the cuprate family (YBCO) in the form of a thick film deposited onto a large area, complex shaped silver substrate.
Education
PhD Polytechnic of Torino, DISPEA
Recent Publications
- Nakazawa N, Grenci G, Kameo Y, Takeda N, Sawada T, Kurisu J, Zhang Z, Toma K, Adachi T, Nonomura K, and Kengaku M. PIEZO1-dependent mode switch of neuronal migration in heterogeneous microenvironments in the developing brain. Cell Rep 2025; 44(3):115405. [PMID: 40053456]
- Suryana M, Produit T, Yang H, Birarda G, Shanmugar JV, Krivitsky L, Paterova A, and Grenci G. Infrared imaging with visible light in microfluidic devices: the water absorption barrier. Analyst 2024;. [PMID: 39692693]
- Mitriashkin A, Yap JYY, Fernando EAK, Iyer NG, Grenci G, and Shan Fong EL. Cell confinement by micropatterning induces phenotypic changes in cancer-associated fibroblasts. Acta Biomater 2024;. [PMID: 39637956]
- Mu B, Rutkowski DM, Grenci G, Vavylonis D, and Zhang D. Ca2+-dependent vesicular and non-vesicular lipid transfer controls hypoosmotic plasma membrane expansion. bioRxiv 2024;. [PMID: 39484559]
- Harley P, Paredes-Redondo A, Grenci G, Viasnoff V, Lin Y, and Lieberam I. 3D Compartmentalised Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived Neuromuscular Co-cultures. Bio Protoc 2023; 13(5):e4624. [PMID: 36908638]
- Tay HG, Andre H, Chrysostomou V, Adusumalli S, Guo J, Ren X, Tan WS, Tor JE, Moreno-Moral A, Plastino F, Bartuma H, Cai Z, Tun SBB, Barathi VA, Siew Wei GT, Grenci G, Chong LY, Holmgren A, Kvanta A, Guy CJ, Petretto E, and Tryggvason K. Photoreceptor laminin drives differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells to photoreceptor progenitors that partially restore retina function. Mol Ther 2023;. [PMID: 36638800]
- Rose N, Estrada Chavez B, Sonam S, Nguyen T, Grenci G, Bigot A, Muchir A, Ladoux B, Cadot B, Le Grand F, and Trichet L. Bioengineering a miniaturized in vitro 3D myotube contraction monitoring chip to model muscular dystrophies. Biomaterials 2022; 293:121935. [PMID: 36584444]
- Grenci G, Dilasser F, Mohamad Raffi SB, Marchand M, Suryana M, Sahni G, Viasnoff V, and Beghin A. A High-Throughput Platform for Culture and 3D Imaging of Organoids. J Vis Exp 2022;(188). [PMID: 36314813]
- Beghin A, Grenci G, Sahni G, Guo S, Rajendiran H, Delaire T, Mohamad Raffi SB, Blanc D, de Mets R, Ong HT, Galindo X, Monet A, Acharya V, Racine V, Levet F, Galland R, Sibarita J, and Viasnoff V. Automated high-speed 3D imaging of organoid cultures with multi-scale phenotypic quantification. Nat Methods 2022;. [PMID: 35697835]
- Chong LH, Ching T, Farm HJ, Grenci G, Chiam K, and Toh Y. Integration of a microfluidic multicellular coculture array with machine learning analysis to predict adverse cutaneous drug reactions. Lab Chip 2022;. [PMID: 35348137]
Selected Publications
- Mona Suryana, Jegan V. Shanmugarajah, Sivakumar M. Maniam, Gianluca Grenci. Soft Lithographic Procedure for Producing Plastic Microfluidic Devices with View-ports Transparent to Visible and Infrared Light
- Mohammed Ashraf, Sree V. Sundararajan, Gianluca Grenci. Low-power, low-pressure reactive-ion etching process for silicon etching with vertical and smooth walls for mechanobiology application
Lab Members
Espérance Nku-Mokabo
Research Associate, Grenci Group
Liu Fan
Senior Research Fellow, Grenci Group
Mona Suryana
Research Associate, Grenci Group
Jegan Vishnuwardhana Shanmugarajah
Research Assistant, Grenci Group
Former Lab Members
Kevin Nicholas
Research Associate, Grenci Group
Sree Vaishnavi Sundararajan
Alumni, Grenci Group
Sivakumar s/o Maniam
Alumni, Research Associate, Grenci Group
