GV SHIVASHANKAR
Principal Investigator, Mechanobiology Institute, IFOM-NUS Chair Professor, National University of Singapore
shiva.gvs@gmail.com
+65 6516 2712 ext 62712
Level 10 T-Lab
National University of Singapore
5A Engineering Drive 1
Singapore 117411
Affiliations
Head, IFOM-NUS Joint Research Laboratory, National University of Singapore
Spark-In-Science Program
Spark-in-Science is a non-profit initiative aimed at igniting scientific temper in high school and pre-university students.
In the News
- Today Online: Study to detect cancer before symptoms develop shows promise
- Straits Times: NUS research: Squeezing mature cells to become stem cells
- Channel News Asia: Becoming Human, Episode 2: Unnatural Genius
The Shivashankar Lab is hiring multiple PhD and Postdoctoral positions starting in Jan 2020. Learn more.
MBI’s International Conference on Genomes and AI: From Packing to Regulation, October 2-4
MBI's upcoming conference will bring together leading international experts, early-career scientists and students at the intersection of genome biology and machine learning to spur new collaborations across disciplinary boundaries. This is critical for uncovering the mechanogenomic codes that link genome architecture, regulation and function, and ultimately for the development of new biomarkers and therapeutic interventions. The International Conference on Genomes and AI: From Packing to Regulation will cover the following three major themes: 1) Single-cell 1D and 3D Genomics: Experiments and Modeling, 2) Networks: From Expression to Regulatory Modules, and 3) Genome Architecture: Regulation and Biomarkers
MBI welcomes its incoming class of 2019
Congratulations to our incoming students! We're proud to introduce (l to r): Liang Lanfeng, Yan Wu, Kashish Jain, Ignacius Tay Yan Yun, Hu Jinrong, Liu Jingzhun, Leong Kim Whye and Deepika Singh, the newest additions to the MBI community.
Molecular controllers of stem cell mechanics
Recent study led by MBI graduate student Shumin Xia and Principal Investigator Associate Professor Pakorn Tony Kanchanawong use super resolution imaging techniques to study the nanoscale organization of the cortical actin cytoskeleton in mouse embryonic stem cells and understand the role of molecules such as Arp2/3, formins, and capping protein in coordinating cortical architecture in mESCs.
GV Shivashankar
Principal Investigator (2011-2019)
Research Areas
Nuclear mechanics, 3D chromosome organization, genome regulation, disease diagnostics
Nuclear Mechanogenomics & Cancer Diagnostics Laboratory
Shivashankar’s lab pursues research in understanding the role of cell mechanics on nuclear mechanotransduction and genome regulation.
Extra-cellular micro-environmental signals are transduced to the nucleus to regulate diverse biological processes including cellular differentiation, development and homeostasis; but the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. In this context, how such micro-environmental signals alter nuclear mechanical architecture and how it integrates with the 3D organization of chromosomes and transcription networks are rather unexplored. Using a multidisciplinary approach combining high resolution optical imaging, quantitative single-cell biology, machine learning and functional genomics, our laboratory investigates the principles underlying the coupling between nuclear mechanics and genome regulation. Our recent and ongoing work provides modular links between cellular geometry and nuclear mechanics and its impact on transcription dependent 3D organization of chromosomes and reprogramming. Such modular links define the normal state of cells and are altered during diseases. Hence our studies also have profound impact on developing single-cell nuclear biomechanical markers for early disease diagnosis and therapeutic intervention.
Biography
Shivashankar is a principal investigator at the Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore. His laboratory is focused on understanding the role of cell mechanics on nuclear mechanotransduction and genome regulation in living cells using a multi-disciplinary approach. He carried out his PhD research at the Rockefeller University (1994-1999) and Postdoctoral research at NEC Research Institute, Princeton USA (1999-2000). He started his laboratory at the National Center for Biological Sciences, TIFR- Bangalore, India (2000-2009) before relocating to a tenured faculty position at the National University of Singapore in 2009. He was the Deputy Director of the Mechanobiology Institute (2011-2019). More recently he also heads a joint research laboratory with the FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology (IFOM), Milan, Italy and was appointed as an IFOM-NUS Chair Professor in 2014. His scientific awards include the Birla Science Prize (2006), the Swarnajayanthi Fellowship (2007), and he was elected to the Indian Academy of Sciences (2010) and to the EMBO membership (2019). He will be relocating to a tenured Full Professorship at ETH Zurich jointly with the Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland, to start the Laboratory of Mechano-Genomics in January 2020.
Education
PhD The Rockefeller University, USA
Funding
Mechanobiology Institute, Ministry of Education Tier-3 Co-Investigator Grant & IFOM-MBI Joint Research Laboratory, Singapore.
Recent Publications
- Mitra A, Cutiongco MFA, Burla R, Zeng Y, Na Q, Kong M, Vinod B, Nai MH, Hübner B, Ludwig A, Lim CT, Shivashankar GV, Saggio I, and Zhao W. Acute chromatin decompaction stiffens the nucleus as revealed by nanopillar-induced nuclear deformation in cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2025; 122(19):e2416659122. [PMID: 40343993]
- Das R, Sakaue T, Shivashankar GV, Prost J, and Hiraiwa T. Chromatin Remodeling Due to Transient-Link-and-Pass Activity Enhances Subnuclear Dynamics. Phys Rev Lett 2024; 132(5):058401. [PMID: 38364140]
- Jiang K, Lim SB, Xiao J, Jokhun DS, Shang M, Song X, Zhang P, Liang L, Low BC, Shivashankar GV, and Lim CT. Deleterious Mechanical Deformation Selects Mechanoresilient Cancer Cells with Enhanced Proliferation and Chemoresistance. Adv Sci (Weinh) 2023;:e2201663. [PMID: 37218524]
- Das R, Sakaue T, Shivashankar GV, Prost J, and Hiraiwa T. How enzymatic activity is involved in chromatin organization. Elife 2022; 11. [PMID: 36472500]
- Yuan L, Roy B, Ratna P, Uhler C, and Shivashankar GV. Lateral confined growth of cells activates Lef1 dependent pathways to regulate cell-state transitions. Sci Rep 2022; 12(1):17318. [PMID: 36243826]
- Venkatachalapathy S, Sreekumar D, Ratna P, and Shivashankar GV. Actomyosin contractility as a mechanical checkpoint for cell state transitions. Sci Rep 2022; 12(1):16063. [PMID: 36163393]
- Venkatachalapathy S, Jokhun DS, Andhari M, and Shivashankar GV. Single cell imaging-based chromatin biomarkers for tumor progression. Sci Rep 2021; 11(1):23041. [PMID: 34845273]
- Ghanbarzadeh Nodehi S, Shivashankar GV, Prost J, and Mohammad-Rafiee F. The characteristics of nuclear membrane fluctuations in stem cells. J R Soc Interface 2021; 18(176):20201010. [PMID: 33715401]
- Yang KD, Belyaeva A, Venkatachalapathy S, Damodaran K, Katcoff A, Radhakrishnan A, Shivashankar GV, and Uhler C. Multi-domain translation between single-cell imaging and sequencing data using autoencoders. Nat Commun 2021; 12(1):31. [PMID: 33397893]
- Lee Y, and Shivashankar GV. Analysis of transcriptional modules during human fibroblast ageing. Sci Rep 2020; 10(1):19086. [PMID: 33154459]
