Alexander BERSHADSKY

Professor and Senior Principal Research Scientist, Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore

alexander.bershadsky@weizmann.ac.il
10-03E
Level 10 T-Lab
National University of Singapore
5A Engineering Drive 1
Singapore 117411

Laboratory website
Actin Biomechanics and Cell Dynamics Lab (ABCD)

Research Program
Leader, The Cell-Matrix and Cell-Cell Mechanotransduction Group

Affiliations
Professor, the Joseph Moss Chair of Biomedical Research, Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science

Alexander Bershadsky

Senior Principal Research Scientist

Research Areas

The Bershadsky Lab studies how cells move, and the physical forces necessary for cells to attach themselves to the substrate and to one another. In exploring the points of contact, which act as mechanical “sensors” that provide the cell with information about its environment and determine its behaviour, they have learned that in cancer cells, the activity of these “sensors” is disrupted, which likely accounts for the cell’s difficulty in adhering to substrates and, consequently, their greater mobility.

Research Interests

Prof Bershadsky’s research interests include the mechanisms of cell motility and intracellular traffic, cytoskeleton dynamics, and the crosstalk between cytoskeleton and cell adhesion. The studies from Bershadsky’s laboratory were among the first in which the phenomenon of adhesion-dependent mechanosensitivity was discovered and demonstrated. These studies showed that focal adhesions function as miniature mechanosensors, because their assembly depends on the application of external or cell-generated pulling forces. The aim of the present studies is to clarify the mechanisms involved in the adhesion dependent mechanosensitivity. Other studies from Bershadsky’s lab address the functions of microtubules in the regulation of cell motility and adhesion. His sphere of interest includes the proteins formins as potent regulators of actin assembly and actin-microtubule crosstalk.

Biography

Prof Bershadsky graduated from Moscow State University, and received his Ph.D. at the Cancer Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Medical Science, under the guidance of Prof Juri Vasiliev. In 1988, together with Prof Vasiliev, he published a book entitled, Cytoskeleton (Plenum Press), which became known as the first textbook in this field of research. Prof Bershadsky moved to Israel in 1992, and since then has worked at the Weizmann Institute of Science, first as Scientist, and subsequently as Senior Scientist, Associate Professor, and Full Professor. He holds the Joseph Moss Professorial Chair in Biomedical Research (2001). Prof Bershadsky worked as a visiting professor at the Curie Institute in Paris in 2005, at the Marine Biological Laboratory Woods Hole, USA, in 2007, and at NUS, in 2008–2010. Since 2001, he is an Editorial Board Member of the international journal of “Cytoskeleton” (formerly “Cell Motility and the Cytoskeleton”).

Education

PhD Cancer Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Medical Science

Recent Publications