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
How does nucleation of actin initiate lamellipodia formation?
How does nucleation of actin initiate lamellipodia formation? In the first phase of lamellipodia formation, actin filament polymerization produces a protrusive force on the cell membrane that promotes the spreading out and enlargement of [...]
What mechanisms drive extension, pause and stasis of the lamellipodia?
What mechanisms drive extension, pause and stasis of the lamellipodia? Extension of the newly formed actin filament branches occurs at the interface between the leading edge and the existing actin filament network [1] and [...]
How do focal adhesions act as molecular clutches in lamellipodia?
How do focal adhesions act as molecular clutches in lamellipodia? Once formed, focal adhesions essentially act as “molecular clutches”, promoting protrusion at the leading edge whilst suppressing membrane contraction (reviewed in [1] [2][3]). Adhesions [...]
How does force generation within lamellipodia facilitate cell translocation?
How does force generation within lamellipodia facilitate cell translocation? Interactions between actin filament networks and the focal adhesions to which they are linked results in the generation of forces. These forces may be exerted [...]
What are invadopodia?
What are invadopodia? Invadopodia are actin-rich structures that are present at the basal surfaces of cells that are capable of crossing extracellular barriers, such as cancer cells. The primary function of invadopodia appears to [...]
What mechanisms drive retraction of the trailing edge?
What mechanisms drive retraction of the trailing edge? Protrusion at the front and retraction at the rear are key force-generating processes at the cell periphery that culminate in the translocation of the cell. For [...]
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
Pan Yuping
Research Assistant, Class of January 2021, Toyama Group
Jashan Preet Singh
PhD Student, Class of January 2021, Young Group
Seah Sock Hong
Research Fellow, Class of January 2021, Low Group
Shen Xingyu
PhD Student, Class of January 2021, Li Group, Young Group
Sun Yuze
PhD Student, Class of January 2021, Yan Jie Group
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
MBI welcomes new 2021 graduate students
The research community at MBI is delighted to welcome these new students in January 2021, when they will be starting their lab rotations, and planting the seeds for many exciting collaborative interdisciplinary research projects during their PhD.
Alokendra Ghosh
Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow, Li Group
Tan Zi Yi Rachel
Graduate Student, Low Group
Shadame Yeo Shuet Ting
Research Apprentice, Low Group
Arulchelvan SO Vijayakumar
Research Assistant, Kanchanawong Group
Clarissa Bernice Quah
Alumni, Yu Group
Former Lab Members
Pan Yuping
Research Assistant, Class of January 2021, Toyama Group
Jashan Preet Singh
PhD Student, Class of January 2021, Young Group
Seah Sock Hong
Research Fellow, Class of January 2021, Low Group
Shen Xingyu
PhD Student, Class of January 2021, Li Group, Young Group
Sun Yuze
PhD Student, Class of January 2021, Yan Jie Group
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
MBI welcomes new 2021 graduate students
The research community at MBI is delighted to welcome these new students in January 2021, when they will be starting their lab rotations, and planting the seeds for many exciting collaborative interdisciplinary research projects during their PhD.
Alokendra Ghosh
Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow, Li Group
Tan Zi Yi Rachel
Graduate Student, Low Group
Shadame Yeo Shuet Ting
Research Apprentice, Low Group
Arulchelvan SO Vijayakumar
Research Assistant, Kanchanawong Group
Clarissa Bernice Quah
Alumni, Yu Group
