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 the vascular system form?
How does the vascular system form? What is vasculogenesis? Vasculogenesis refers to the morphogenetic process occurring during the earliest stages of embryonic development by which a de novo vascular system, consisting of the heart [...]
What is dorsal closure?
What is dorsal closure? The shaping of the embryo during development is driven by large-scale movements of epithelial cell sheets as they bend, spread, and fuse with each other. One such major, well-defined morphogenetic [...]
How is dorsal closure controlled by mechanics?
How is dorsal closure controlled by mechanics? A number of studies, which describe the cellular mechanisms and signaling pathways underlying dorsal closure, have pointed towards a mechanical basis for the morphogenetic changes associated with [...]
What are epithelial tubes?
What are epithelial tubes? Tubulogenesis, or the formation of tubes, is one of the fundamental morphogenetic events taking place during development. Several major organs, such as the respiratory, circulatory, and secretory systems, are constituted [...]
What is cell migration?
What is cell migration? Cell migration is the directed movement of a single cell or a group of cells in response to chemical and/or mechanical signals. It is a fundamental cellular process that occurs [...]
What is cell polarity?
What is cell polarity? Cell polarity refers to the intrinsic asymmetry observed in cells, either in their shape, structure, or organization of cellular components. Most epithelial cells, migrating cells and developing cells require some [...]
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
Synchrony of Waves
The collective dynamics of endocytosis
Sensing Force and Torque
Mechanical regulation of actin polymerization by formins
Confined movements
How cells form tubes in confined spaces
2017 National Day Honours: MBI staff member Tan Bee Lay awarded Long Service Medal
Congratulations to MBI’s own Tan Bee Lay for her award of the Long Service Medal by the President of the Republic of Singapore in recognition of her contributions to the University.
Defects in Epithelial Tissue Organization
A question of life and death
Development in Time and Space
Shedding light on the importance of time in embryo development
The (BP)GAP Between Signaling Pathways
To grow or not to grow?
Gender Gaps in Science: BIOS 2017 Panel Discussion on Women in Science
MBI hosted BIOS2017 on Friday, the 15th of September. The scientific talks were followed by an hour-long panel discussion that was aimed at bringing out the various contributing factors towards gender gaps at work place.
BIOS 2017: Post-event report
MBI NUS hosted BIOS2017 on 15th of September. BIOS, a MBI Women in Science initiative, is a unique national-level biology symposium that aims to bring together women researchers in Singapore from diverse realms of life sciences research.
2017 UNESCO Symposium: Cracking the Code: Girls Education in STEM, a report
The symposium explored multi-pronged approaches to tackle gender gaps in STEM education at the individual, family & peers, schools/educational institutions, society and government levels.
Sree Vaishnavi Sundararajan
Alumni, Grenci Group
Mona Suryana
Research Associate, Grenci Group
Former Lab Members
Synchrony of Waves
The collective dynamics of endocytosis
Sensing Force and Torque
Mechanical regulation of actin polymerization by formins
Confined movements
How cells form tubes in confined spaces
2017 National Day Honours: MBI staff member Tan Bee Lay awarded Long Service Medal
Congratulations to MBI’s own Tan Bee Lay for her award of the Long Service Medal by the President of the Republic of Singapore in recognition of her contributions to the University.
Defects in Epithelial Tissue Organization
A question of life and death
Development in Time and Space
Shedding light on the importance of time in embryo development
The (BP)GAP Between Signaling Pathways
To grow or not to grow?
Gender Gaps in Science: BIOS 2017 Panel Discussion on Women in Science
MBI hosted BIOS2017 on Friday, the 15th of September. The scientific talks were followed by an hour-long panel discussion that was aimed at bringing out the various contributing factors towards gender gaps at work place.
BIOS 2017: Post-event report
MBI NUS hosted BIOS2017 on 15th of September. BIOS, a MBI Women in Science initiative, is a unique national-level biology symposium that aims to bring together women researchers in Singapore from diverse realms of life sciences research.
2017 UNESCO Symposium: Cracking the Code: Girls Education in STEM, a report
The symposium explored multi-pronged approaches to tackle gender gaps in STEM education at the individual, family & peers, schools/educational institutions, society and government levels.
Sree Vaishnavi Sundararajan
Alumni, Grenci Group
Mona Suryana
Research Associate, Grenci Group
