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 Laboratory Technologist (Wet Lab Core Facility) at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS
The Mechanobiology Institute (MBI), National University of Singapore (NUS), is seeking to recruit a Laboratory Technologist (Wet Lab Core Facility).
Avery Sun selected for CEMB Future Leaders in Mechanobiology Seminar Series
MBI PhD student Avery Sun was selected for the Future Leaders in Mechanobiology Seminar Series in February 2025. This monthly seminar series is hosted by the Center for Engineering Mechanobiology, University of Pennsylvania, USA.
Felix Uecker
Research Fellow, Li Group
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
How are lipids and protein complexes segregated during cell polarization?
How are lipids and protein complexes segregated during cell polarization? In polarized epithelial cells, the apical membrane is rich in PIP2 and houses the PAR and Crumbs polarity complexes while the basal membrane contains [...]
How is the cytoskeleton polarized?
How is the cytoskeleton polarized? As well as the asymmetric organization of cellular components, polarity can also be defined through the structural orientation of the cytoskeleton, in particular, actin filaments and microtubules. This is [...]
What is the epithelial to mesenchymal transition?
What is the epithelial to mesenchymal transition? Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is the process whereby epithelial cells are transformed into mesenchymal cells. Epithelial cells form the epithelium tissue which covers the internal and [...]
What is the mesenchymal to epithelial transition?
What is the mesenchymal-epithelial transition? During development, the transitioning of epithelial cells to a mesenchymal lineage is not an irreversible process. Instead, a number of developmental programs are accompanied by a reversal of EMT, [...]
What is hematopoiesis?
What is hematopoiesis? The hematopoietic system, which comprises all the cellular components of the blood, is one of the earliest organ systems to evolve during embryo development. Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), which are rare [...]
How is hematopoiesis regulated by mechanics?
How is hematopoiesis regulated by mechanics? Once blood circulation is established during the earliest stages of hematopoiesis, the pulsatile nature of blood flow within the aorta generates a range of biomechanical forces, such as [...]
What is the cellular origin of hematopoietic stem cells?
What is the cellular origin of hematopoietic stem cells? Based on findings from a large number of anatomical, biochemical, and genetic studies carried out over the years, three major theories have been put forth [...]
What are cell-cell adhesions?
What are cell-cell adhesions? Cell-cell signaling refers to inter-cellular communication through the transduction of chemical, mechanical or electrical signals, facilitated by the formation of specialized cell-cell adhesion junctions. There are three main types of [...]
How are cell-cell adhesions regulated?
How are cell-cell adhesions regulated? Introduction to the regulation of cell-cell adhesion The assembly and disassembly of cell-cell junctions, such as adherens junctions (AJ), are regulated by a vast array of factors functioning in [...]
How are adherens junctions assembled?
How are adherens junctions assembled? Introduction to the Assembly of Adherens Junctions In situations where migrating cells first encounter each other to form junctions, changes in cellular morphology have been observed and correlated with [...]
What are adherens junctions?
What are adherens junctions? Adherens junctions (AJs) are cell-cell adhesion complexes that are continuously assembled and disassembled, allowing cells within a tissue to respond to forces, biochemical signals and structural changes in their microenvironment. [...]
How are tight junctions assembled?
How are tight junctions assembled? The epithelial tissue is held intact by the formation of tight junctions between cells. The basic functional units that form adhesive contacts across cells are the tight junction strands, [...]
