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
Shambhavi Dikshit
Research Fellow, Toyama Group
Nishanth Venugopal Menon
Senior Research Fellow, Lim Group
Prof Rong Li elected President of the American Society for Cell Biology for 2026
MBI Director Professor Rong Li, has been elected by members of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) to serve as President of the Society in 2026. She will serve as President-Elect on the ASCB Executive Committee beginning 1 January 2025, before starting her term as President on 1 January 2026.
Prof Lim Chwee Teck elected Fellow of the Royal Society
MBI Principal Investigator Professor Lim Chwee Teck, Director of the Institute for Health Innovation & Technology at the National University of Singapore (NUS iHealthtech) and NUSS Professor, has been elected to the prestigious Fellowship of the Royal Society
The first research article from the Chan Lab is up on bioRxiv now
Congratulations to Arikta for driving this project!
Congrats to Kim Whye, Boon Heng and Kosei for their accomplishments at the SCBS Annual Conference 2024!
Congratulations to Kim Whye and Boon Heng (below) for presenting their latest research on ovarian follicle development and to Kosei for being awarded the 'Best Poster Prize' at the SCBS Annual Conference 2024.
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
- Zhang Z, Canela A, Kurisu J, Zou P, Kawaue T, Nakazawa N, Takeda N, Saeki M, Utsunomiya M, Bilgic M, Ishidate F, Grenci G, Furuta T, Kishi Y, Sasanuma H, and Kengaku M. Confined migration induces non-lethal DNA damage in developing neurons. Nature 2026;. [PMID: 42310452]
- Gandin A, Torresan V, Panciera T, Grenci G, Vanni G, Citron A, Marchionni M, Battilana G, Pelosin M, Busetto R, Piccolo S, and Brusatin G. Flexible high-resolution ECM micropatterning. Nat Protoc 2026;. [PMID: 42129485]
- Dunsing-Eichenauer V, Hummert J, Chardès C, Schönau T, Guignard L, Galland R, Grenci G, Tillmann M, Koberling F, Nock C, Sibarita J, Viasnoff V, Antolovic IM, Erdmann R, and Lenne P. Fast volumetric fluorescence lifetime imaging of multicellular systems using single-objective light-sheet microscopy. Commun Biol 2025;. [PMID: 41315677]
- Jiang X, Xu P, Feng F, Grenci G, and Saw TB. Revealing Electromechanical Control of Tissue Homeostasis Using a Two-Layer Microfluidic Device. J Vis Exp 2025;(223). [PMID: 41052031]
- Cabillic M, Forriere H, Bettarel L, Butler C, Neuhaus A, Idrissi I, Sambrano-Lopez ME, Rossbroich J, Müller L, Ries J, Grenci G, Viasnoff V, Levet F, Sibarita J, and Galland R. In-depth single molecule localization microscopy using adaptive optics and single objective light-sheet microscopy. Nat Commun 2025; 16(1):8362. [PMID: 40993142]
- Mu B, Rutkowski DM, Grenci G, Vavylonis D, and Zhang D. Ca2+-dependent vesicular and non-vesicular lipid transfer controls hypoosmotic plasma membrane expansion. BMC Biol 2025; 23(1):207. [PMID: 40629316]
- Ong HT, Karatas E, Poquillon T, Grenci G, Furlan A, Dilasser F, Mohamad Raffi SB, Blanc D, Drimaracci E, Mikec D, Galisot G, Johnson BA, Liu AZ, Thiel C, Ullrich O, , Racine V, and Beghin A. Digitalized organoids: integrated pipeline for high-speed 3D analysis of organoid structures using multilevel segmentation and cellular topology. Nat Methods 2025;. [PMID: 40369245]
- Arora A, Rizvi MS, Grenci G, Dilasser F, Fu C, Ganguly M, Vaishnavi S, Paramsivam K, Budnar S, Noordstra I, Yap AS, and Viasnoff V. Viscous dissipation in the rupture of cell-cell contacts. Nat Mater 2025;. [PMID: 40355570]
- 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]
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
How is integrin activated?
How is integrin activated? Integrin activation is an important mechanism through which cells regulate integrin function by manipulating the ligand affinity of integrins spatially and temporally. Structural and functional studies suggest that integrins can [...]
What ligands bind to integrin?
What ligands bind to integrin? Integrin-Ligand specificity Humans have at least 18 α subtypes and 8 β subtypes which together generate 24 known binding pairs for the integrins heterodimer (reviewed in [1][2]). The α [...]
What is integrin extension?
What is integrin extension? Integrin extension Upon alteration in the transmembrane and their proximal domains, the bent headpiece extends in less than 1 second [1] with intermediate affinity for ligands. Two models- “switchblade” and [...]
What are guidance cues?
What are guidance cues? During neural development, highly motile structures on the developing neurites, called growth cones, are guided by signals from the extracellular environment. Guidance cues come in many different forms, from diffusible [...]
How do neurotrophins, collapsin, and ephrins, serve as guidance cues?
How do neurotrophins, collapsin, and ephrins, serve as guidance cues? Neurotrophins Stimulating filopodia formation A secreted guidance cue which stimulates filopodia formation in growth cones. Two examples of secreted neurotrophins, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) [...]
What is the NF-κB pathway?
What is the NF-κB pathway? NF-κB (nuclear factor kappa light chain enhancer of activated B cells) is a family of highly conserved transcription factors that regulate many important cellular behaviours, in particular, inflammatory responses, [...]
What is the Canonical Wnt Receptor Signaling Pathway?
What is the Canonical Wnt Receptor Signaling Pathway? The canonical Wnt receptor signaling pathway is a series of molecular events that are initiated by the binding of Wnt proteins to the frizzled family of [...]
How is SRF signaling activated?
How is SRF signaling activated? Myocardin, MAL (or MRTF-A) and MRTF-B are the best-studied examples of MRTFs. In the cytoplasm, MRTFs exist in a stable complex with monomeric G-actin via RPEL domains, which exist [...]
What is Serum Response Factor?
What is Serum Response Factor? Serum response factor (SRF) is a transcription factor that plays a key role in the transduction of mechanical signals from cytoplasmic actin and the extracellular environment, to the cell [...]
Which biochemical pathways are regulated by mechanical signals?
Which biochemical pathways are regulated by mechanical signals? Biochemical Mechanotransduction Cells are capable of relaying mechanical stimuli from their physical environment all the way down to the nucleus through electrochemical, biochemical or mechanical pathways. [...]
What are Arf GTPases?
What are Arf GTPases? ADP-ribosylation factor (Arf) GTPases are a subfamily of the Ras superfamily of small GTPases. Arf proteins perform diverse and critical functions in fundamental cellular processes like membrane trafficking, lipid modification, [...]
How do small GTPases regulate mechanosignaling pathways?
How do small GTPases regulate mechanosignaling pathways? The small GTPases are a superfamily of enzymes that function as ‘molecular switches’ and are involved in regulating many cellular processes. All small GTPases transduce information through [...]
Former Lab Members
How is integrin activated?
How is integrin activated? Integrin activation is an important mechanism through which cells regulate integrin function by manipulating the ligand affinity of integrins spatially and temporally. Structural and functional studies suggest that integrins can [...]
What ligands bind to integrin?
What ligands bind to integrin? Integrin-Ligand specificity Humans have at least 18 α subtypes and 8 β subtypes which together generate 24 known binding pairs for the integrins heterodimer (reviewed in [1][2]). The α [...]
What is integrin extension?
What is integrin extension? Integrin extension Upon alteration in the transmembrane and their proximal domains, the bent headpiece extends in less than 1 second [1] with intermediate affinity for ligands. Two models- “switchblade” and [...]
What are guidance cues?
What are guidance cues? During neural development, highly motile structures on the developing neurites, called growth cones, are guided by signals from the extracellular environment. Guidance cues come in many different forms, from diffusible [...]
How do neurotrophins, collapsin, and ephrins, serve as guidance cues?
How do neurotrophins, collapsin, and ephrins, serve as guidance cues? Neurotrophins Stimulating filopodia formation A secreted guidance cue which stimulates filopodia formation in growth cones. Two examples of secreted neurotrophins, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) [...]
What is the NF-κB pathway?
What is the NF-κB pathway? NF-κB (nuclear factor kappa light chain enhancer of activated B cells) is a family of highly conserved transcription factors that regulate many important cellular behaviours, in particular, inflammatory responses, [...]
What is the Canonical Wnt Receptor Signaling Pathway?
What is the Canonical Wnt Receptor Signaling Pathway? The canonical Wnt receptor signaling pathway is a series of molecular events that are initiated by the binding of Wnt proteins to the frizzled family of [...]
How is SRF signaling activated?
How is SRF signaling activated? Myocardin, MAL (or MRTF-A) and MRTF-B are the best-studied examples of MRTFs. In the cytoplasm, MRTFs exist in a stable complex with monomeric G-actin via RPEL domains, which exist [...]
What is Serum Response Factor?
What is Serum Response Factor? Serum response factor (SRF) is a transcription factor that plays a key role in the transduction of mechanical signals from cytoplasmic actin and the extracellular environment, to the cell [...]
Which biochemical pathways are regulated by mechanical signals?
Which biochemical pathways are regulated by mechanical signals? Biochemical Mechanotransduction Cells are capable of relaying mechanical stimuli from their physical environment all the way down to the nucleus through electrochemical, biochemical or mechanical pathways. [...]
What are Arf GTPases?
What are Arf GTPases? ADP-ribosylation factor (Arf) GTPases are a subfamily of the Ras superfamily of small GTPases. Arf proteins perform diverse and critical functions in fundamental cellular processes like membrane trafficking, lipid modification, [...]
How do small GTPases regulate mechanosignaling pathways?
How do small GTPases regulate mechanosignaling pathways? The small GTPases are a superfamily of enzymes that function as ‘molecular switches’ and are involved in regulating many cellular processes. All small GTPases transduce information through [...]
