Prof. Dr. G.V. Shivashankar

Additional information

Research Area:

Cells within the tissue microenvironment are highly heterogeneous and integrate both, mechanical and biochemical signals to maintain homeostasis. Sustained modulations in such micro-environmental signals result in cell-state transitions including disease states; however, the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. Using a multi-disciplinary approach, including single-cell imaging, functional genomics and machine learning, we study the coupling between cell mechanics and genome organization in regulating cell-state homeostasis and its transitions. Our studies aimed at an in-depth understanding of the mechanical regulation of genome programs have major implications in regenerative medicine and for early disease diagnostics.

Curriculum Vitae:

Shivashankar is currently a Full Professor of Mechano-Genomics at the Department of Health Science and Technology, ETH Zurich jointly with the Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland. He carried out his PhD at the Rockefeller University (1994-1999) and Postdoctoral research at NEC Research Institute, Princeton USA (1999-2000). He was a tenured faculty at the National Center for Biological Sciences, NCBS-TIFR- Bangalore, India (2000-2009) before relocating to the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2010. He was the Deputy Director of the Mechanobiology Institute at NUS (2011-2019) and was the IFOM-NUS Chair Professor (2014-2019) before joining ETH. His scientific awards include the Birla Science Prize in 2006, the Swarnajayanthi Fellowship in 2007. He was elected to the Indian Academy of Sciences in 2010 and to the EMBO membership in 2019.