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.
Teh Zhi Jing
Research Assistant, Low Group
Congratulations to Kim Whye Leong for presenting excellent work at the Imaging Mouse Development Workshop held at EMBL Heidelberg!
Congratulations to Kim Whye Leong for presenting excellent work at the Imaging Mouse Development Workshop held at EMBL Heidelberg from 2 to 5 Sept 2024. Thanks for all the feedback from the expert audience!
Seeking Research Assistant in the labs of Dr. Natalie Dye and Dr. Alphée Michelot at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS
We are seeking a Research Assistant to join the labs of Dr. Natalie Dye and Dr. Alphée Michelot at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS.
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 do focal adhesions mature?
How do focal adhesions mature? Adhesions that manage to grow beyond the transient phase further undergo qualitative changes in a phase described as maturation. This transformation of adhesion sites into stress-fiber bound focal adhesions [...]
What is the first step in focal adhesion assembly?
What is the first step in focal adhesion assembly? Focal adhesion formation is initiated upon the binding of adhesion receptors to extracellular matrix (ECM) ligands (e.g. fibronectin, vitronectin, collagen) along the cell periphery usually [...]
What is the role of integrin clustering in focal adhesion assembly?
What is the role of integrin clustering in focal adhesion assembly? There is still much debate over the mechanisms of signal transduction following integrin-ligand binding, however recent studies reveal that irrespective of the global [...]
What is the role of Rho GTPases in the regulation of focal adhesion assembly?
What is the role of Rho GTPases in the regulation of focal adhesion assembly? Synergistic integrin-syndecan signaling The rate and extent of focal adhesion formation and maturation are regulated by factors such as synergistic [...]
How do nascent adhesions grow into mature focal adhesions?
How do nascent adhesions grow into mature focal adhesions? Nascent adhesions undergo a transient phase of rapid assembly and disassembly through which a fraction of adhesions survive to evolve into more stable and larger [...]
What steps are involved in the formation of focal adhesions?
What steps are involved in the formation of focal adhesions? The assembly of focal adhesions is highly regulated, with protein recruitment occurring in a sequential manner [1], and resulting in structures that are organized [...]
What are actin filaments?
What are actin filaments? Actin filaments (F-actin) are linear polymers of globular actin (G-actin) subunits and occur as microfilaments in the cytoskeleton and as thin filaments, which are part of the contractile apparatus, in [...]
What is the cytoskeleton?
What is the Cytoskeleton? The eukaryotic cytoskeleton is a network of three long filament systems, made from the repetitive assembly and disassembly of dynamic protein components. The primary filament systems comprising the cytoskeleton are [...]
Arikta and Yuting shared their research as speakers at the MBI Conference 2023
Congratulations to Arikta and Yuting for being selected as speakers and sharing their latest research on ovarian folliculogenesis in MBI Conference 2023: Mechanobiology in Health and Disease. Thanks to various feedback following the talks!
Seeking Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Anne Beghin’s Group at MBI, NUS
The Mechanobiology Institute, NUS seeks to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to Dr. Anne Beghin's lab.
Seeking Postdoctoral Fellow in the Young Laboratory at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS
The Mechanobiology Institute, NUS seeks to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to Asst. Prof. Jennifer Young's lab.
Know You Foe, Work Safely: MBI Safety Day and Safety & Health Management Awards
Through useful talks, fun games and good food, MBI learnt about the dangers in the lab/workplace, and celebrated the good work MBI has done in securing a safe and healthy work environment for all
