By Hu Chen1, Saranya Chandrasekar1, Michael P. Sheetz1, 2, Thomas P. Stossel3, Fumihiko Nakamura3* and Jie Yan1, 4, 5* 1Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117411 2 Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA 3Translational Medicine Division, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115,…
Research at the MBI
At the Mechanobiology Institute we are exploring the effects of structural micro-environments and force-induced deformations on molecules, cells and tissues in several different contexts, including the differentiation of stem cells and cancer cell pathology. The field of mechanobiology arose from the cross-roads of multiple disciplines including; cell and molecular biology, engineering, physics and computer science. New technologies such as high resolution time-lapse microscopy and micro-scale devices have vastly enhanced the study of mechanobiology, by enabling the description of complex functions at the sub-micrometer level. Learn more about research at the MBI.
Latest publications
Mechanical perturbation of filamin A immunoglobulin repeats 20-21 reveals potential non-equilibrium mechanochemical partner binding function. Scientific Reports, April 2013
By Srivani Sistla | Published May 13th, 2013Severe osmotic compression triggers a slowdown of intracellular signaling, which can be explained by molecular crowding. PNAS.
By Srivani Sistla | Published April 24th, 2013
Pascal Hersen By Agnès Miermonta, François Waharteb, Shiqiong Huc, Megan Nicole McCleand, Samuel Bottania, Sébastien Léone and Pascal Hersena,c,1 aLaboratoire Matière et Systèmes Complexes, Unité Mixte de Recherche (UMR) 7057, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Paris Diderot, 75013 Paris, France; bBioImaging Cell and Tissue Core Facility (PICT-IBiSA), UMR 144, CNRS, Institut Curie,…
Mechanism of DNA Organization by Mycobacterium tuberculosis Protein Lsr2. Nucleic Acids Research.
By Srivani Sistla | Published April 20th, 2013By Yuanyuan Qu1,2,3,# Ci Ji Lim1,2,3,4,# Yixun R. Whang1,2,3 Jun Liu5,* and Jie Yan1,2,3,4,* 1Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117542, Singapore; 2Centre for Bioimaging Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117546, Singapore; 3Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117411, Singapore; 4NUS Graduate school for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, Singapore, 119077, Singapore;…
Cadherin adhesome at a glance. Journal of Cell Science.
By Srivani Sistla | Published April 4th, 2013
Ronen Zaidel-Bar Mechanobiology Institute, Singapore, and Department of Bioengineering National University of Singapore, Singapore 117411 biezbr@nus.edu.sg Multicellular life hinges on molecular ensembles that are able to mediate adhesion between cells (Abedin and King, 2010). One such conserved structure is the adherens junction (AJ); here, transmembrane glycoproteins, the cadherins, interact homophilically with cadherins that are located…
Revealing the competition between peeled ssDNA, melting bubbles, and S-DNA during DNA overstretching by single-molecule calorimetry. PNAS
By Srivani Sistla | Published February 25th, 2013
By Xinghua Zhanga,b, Hu Chenb, Shimin Leb, Ioulia Rouzinac, Patrick S. Doylea,d,1, and Jie Yana,b,e,f,1 aBioSystems and Micromechanics Interdisciplinary Research Group, Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, National University of Singapore, Republic of Singapore 138602; bMechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore, Republic of Singapore 117411; cDepartment of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics, University of Minnesota,…
Hutchinson–Gilford progeria syndrome alters nuclear shape and reduces cell motility in three dimensional model substrates Integrative Biology January 2013
By Srivani Sistla | Published February 8th, 2013
By Elizabeth A. Booth-Gauthier1, Vicard Du2, Marion Ghibaudo2, Andrew D. Rape1, Kris Noel Dahl1,3* and Benoit Ladoux2,4* 1 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh USA 2 Labaratoire Matiere et Systemes Complexes, Universite Paris Diderot and Centre national de la Recherche Scientifique UMR 7057, batiment Condorcet 10 rue Alcoe Domon et Leonie Duquet,…
Correlated Spatio-Temporal Fluctuations in Chromatin Compaction States Characterize Stem Cells Biophysical Journal,February 2013
By Srivani Sistla | Published February 7th, 2013
By Shefali Talwar,†‡# Abhishek Kumar,†‡# Madan Rao,‡§ Gautam I. Menon,†{ and G. V. Shivashankar†* †Mechanobiology Institute and Department of Biological Sciences, NUS, Singapore; ‡National Centre for Biological Sciences, TIFR, Bangalore, India; §Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, India; and { The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, India #- Contributed equally to the work Biophysical Journal, Volume 104…
Microfluidic cell trap array for controlled positioning of single cells on adhesive micropatterns. Lab on a Chip December 2012
By Srivani Sistla | Published January 29th, 2013By Laiyi Lin,a Yeh-Shiu Chu,b,c Jean Paul Thiery,b,d,e,g Chwee Teck Lim*a,f,g and Isabel Rodriguez*h aNUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore; bInstitue of Molecular and Cell Biology, A*STAR, Singapore; cBrain Research Center, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, 112 Taiwan; dCancer Science Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore; eDepartment of Biochemistry,…
Stretching and Bending Fluctuations of Short DNA Molecules. Biophysical Journal, January 2013
By Srivani Sistla | Published January 29th, 2013By Ranjith Padinhateeri†* and Gautam I. Menon‡* †Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering and Wadhwani Research Centre for Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India; ‡The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, C.I.T. Campus, Taramani, Chennai, India and Mechanobiology Institute and Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore Biophysical Journal, Volume 104, Issue…
The nucleoid-associated protein Dan organizes chromosomal DNA through rigid nucleoprotein filament formation in E. coli during anoxia Nucleic Acids Research, November 2012
By Srivani Sistla | Published January 3rd, 2013By Ci Ji Lim1,2,3, Sin Yi Lee2,3,4, Jun Teramoto5, Akira Ishihama5,* and Jie Yan1,2,3,4,* 1National University of Singapore, Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, 2Mechanobiology Institute, 3Center for Bioimaging Sciences, 4Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, Singapore and 5Department of Frontier Bioscience, Hosei University, Koganei, Tokyo 184-8584, Japan Nucleic Acids Research, published online…
Science features
- An inventory of the structural and regulatory components of adherens junctions (AJs)
- MBI Professor CT Lim recognized for innovation
- New MBI PI Fumio Motegi explores cell polarization and soma-germline fate determination
- Yan Jie’s debate-settling work on the structure of DNA in PNAS
- Benoit Ladoux’s latest findings on mechanosensing and cell substrate stiffness in PNAS
- Percolation as a Paradigm for Topological Phase Transitions in Transportation Networks
- Structural changes in bacterial osmosensing
- Research Sans Boundaries
- Killing glutamine- addicted cancer
- Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) winners Benoit Ladoux and Chwee Teck Lim
- Yasuhiro Sawada on the mechanics of stem cells in new publication
- Jie Yan publishes novel findings on DNA stretching in PNAS
- VU University Amsterdam students visit MBI labs
- Art meets science: the MBI Microscopy Core
- MBI Welcomes New Principal Investigator, A/P Tony Kanchanawong
- Eleventh Annual Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences Awarded to Professor Michael Sheetz
- MBInfo, new Mechanobiology resource for students and researchers
- MBI-hosted 5th Mechanobiology Conference concludes with new insight
- Agreement to launch new International Associated Laboratory, Cell Adhesion France-Singapore (CAFS), announced
- MBI hosts 5th Mechanobiology conference: The Mechanobiology of Multicellular Systems
