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.
Seeking Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Vascular Mechano-medicine Lab of Dr. Shailaja Seetharaman at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS
We are seeking to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the research group of Dr. Shailaja Seetharaman at the Mechanobiology Institute and Department of Physiology at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS.
Early Career Researchers’ Day: A Launchpad for Postdocs and PhD Students
A symposium for postdoctoral researchers and PhD students to present their scientific work, network with peers, and participate in career development.
Less is More: Simplified 3D Nanoscopy via Vortex Interference Widens Access
Researchers from the Kanchanawong Lab at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS makes cutting-edge 3D nanoscopy more accessible to researchers without elaborate optical engineering.
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]
Lab Members
Nicole Ng Shu Ying
Research Assistant, Hirashima Group
Jevon Tan
PhD Student (DBS), Low Group
Chang Ye Ji
PhD Student, Biomedical Engineering Dept, Holle Group
Gao Xu
PhD Student, Biomedical Engineering Dept, Holle Group
Raageshwari D/O Arulselvam
PhD Student, Biomedical Engineering Dept, Young Group
Seeking Postdoctoral Fellow in the Young & Thibault Laboratories at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS
The Mechanobiology Institute, NUS seeks to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to Asst. Prof. Jennifer Young's lab.
An early Christmas dinner to celebrate Chan Lab’s accomplishments in 2023!
As the year draws to a close, the Chan Lab celebrated the achievements and contributions by everyone (including many new faces!) in 2023 with an early Christmas dinner, and to thank them for their hard work this busy year. The Lab looks forward to more wonderful things to come in 2024!
How does the cytoskeleton transmit mechanical forces?
How does the cytoskeleton transmit mechanical forces?It is clear that mechanical forces and structural cues influence cell behavior by regulating signal processes. These signals go on to alter gene expression and reorganize the cytoskeleton and [...]
What types of forces do cells encounter?
What types of forces do cells encounter?Cells and subcellular structures experience forces from a variety of sources. In general, forces are developed from within the cell via the cytoskeleton (endogenous forces) or come from outside [...]
Is Mechanosensing an Active Process?
Is Mechanosensing an Active Process?Types of MechanosensingWhen a cell periodically tests its external environment, a mechanical signal is converted to a chemical signal across the cell membrane. Adhesion receptors located on the external cell membrane [...]
How is Energy Transferred Across the Cellular System?
How is Energy Transferred Across the Cellular System?Cellular systems function at a nanometer level and use a highly dynamic set of components. Both of these factors act as primary constraints that prevent the generation of [...]
How are forces transduced in a cellular environment?
How are forces transduced in a cellular environment?The application of the tensegrity, semiflexible chain and dipole polarization models to biological scenarios has proven most successful in the case of the tensegrity hypothesis (as reviewed in [...]
