Virgile VIASNOFF
Associate Professor, Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore
Virgile.Viasnoff@espci.fr
+65 6601 1400 ext 11400
09-03-05 T-Lab
National University of Singapore
5A Engineering Drive 1
Singapore 117411
Laboratory website
Biomechanics of Cell-Cell Contacts
Research Program
Technology Innovation for Mechanobiology
Affiliations
Charge de Recherche 1st Class CNRS/ France
Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore
So-SPIM-FCS
A novel tool for imaging nuclear protein dynamics
B(a)iled Out
Actin remodeling drives bile regurgitation during obstructive cholestasis
Shaping Lumens by Force
How extracellular matrix scaffolding guides lumen elongation
soSPIM Developed at MBI
Microfabrication leads to a new microscopy method
Capturing E-cadherin
Dynamics of cortical actin in the recruitment o cadherin at adhesion sites
Virgile Viasnoff
Principal Investigator
Research Areas
Cell-cell adhesion, microfabrication of controlled environment for cell culture, biophysic of single molecules
Research Interests
Cell-cell adhesion is a fundamental biological process in tissue formation, embryogenesis and cancer development. Our research aims at understanding the physical and biomolecular mechanisms that underlies the formation of cell-cell junction in various conditions. One approach that we have taken is to use model cell systems to understand the dynamics and spatial organization of cadherin during the formation of the junction. We also develop physical approaches to test and measure the influence of mechanical tensions on the structure and dynamics of junction formation. Another approach is to study specific junction such as bile canaliculi formed between primary hepatocytes . Using microfabricated patterns with 3D protein coating we control the dynamics and position of bile canaliculi formation. Performing specifically developed techniques we image in real time the formation of the secretion tube and study how its formation is affected by physical parameters.
Building on our experience with 3D protein coating in nano and microtextured environment, we are developing a platform for controlled cell culture, high resolution imaging and high through-put screening capabilities.
Biography
Virgile Viasnoff was trained as a soft matter physicist at Ecole Normale Superieure of Paris. After one Year at Johns Hopkins (USA) as a master thesis, he joined ESPCI (Paris) where he did his PhD on the microrheology of aging colloidal system. He then spent a 2 year post doc in Harvard where he worked on nanopore technologies to study RNA folding kinetics. In 2006 he was recruited at CNRS at ESPCI in Paris where he now works on single molecule biophysics. In parallel to his activity in Paris, he joined MBI in 2010 as an Associate Prof where he started working on cell-cell junction mechanics and microfabrication of patterned substrate for cell culture. He is now heading a collaborative Research program between MBI and CNRS on cell adhesion.
Education
PhD ESPCI (Paris)
Recent Publications
- Motegi F, Plachta N, and Viasnoff V. Novel approaches to link apicobasal polarity to cell fate specification. Curr. Opin. Cell Biol. 2019; 62:78-85. [PMID: 31731147]
- Rafiq NBM, Grenci G, Lim CK, Kozlov MM, Jones GE, Viasnoff V, and Bershadsky AD. Forces and constraints controlling podosome assembly and disassembly. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci. 2019; 374(1779):20180228. [PMID: 31431172]
- Machado CB, Pluchon P, Harley P, Rigby M, Gonzalez Sabater V, Stevenson DC, Hynes S, Lowe A, Burrone J, Viasnoff V, and Lieberam I. In Vitro Modelling of Nerve-Muscle Connectivity in a Compartmentalised Tissue Culture Device. Adv Biosyst 2019; 3(7). [PMID: 31428672]
- . https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31147615
- Balakrishnan A, Koppaka D, Anand A, Deb B, Grenci G, Viasnoff V, Thompson EW, Gowda H, Bhat R, Rangarajan A, Thiery JP, Govind Babu K, and Kumar P. Circulating Tumor Cell cluster phenotype allows monitoring response to treatment and predicts survival. Sci Rep 2019; 9(1):7933. [PMID: 31138856]
- Rafiq NBM, Nishimura Y, Plotnikov SV, Thiagarajan V, Zhang Z, Shi S, Natarajan M, Viasnoff V, Kanchanawong P, Jones GE, and Bershadsky AD. A mechano-signalling network linking microtubules, myosin IIA filaments and integrin-based adhesions. Nat Mater 2019; 18(6):638-649. [PMID: 31114072]
- Gao X, Acharya BR, Engl WCO, De Mets R, Thiery JP, Yap AS, and Viasnoff V. Probing compression versus stretch activated recruitment of cortical actin and apical junction proteins using mechanical stimulations of suspended doublets. APL Bioeng 2018; 2(2):026111. [PMID: 31069308]
- Jalal S, Shi S, Acharya V, Huang RY, Viasnoff V, Bershadsky A, and Tee YH. Actin cytoskeleton self-organization in single epithelial cells and fibroblasts under isotropic confinement. J. Cell. Sci. 2019;. [PMID: 30787030]
- Dasgupta S, Gupta K, Zhang Y, Viasnoff V, and Prost J. Physics of lumen growth. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2018;. [PMID: 29735699]
- Gao X, Stoecklin C, Zhang Y, Weng Z, De Mets R, Grenci G, and Viasnoff V. Artificial Microniche Array with Spatially Structured Biochemical Cues. Methods Mol. Biol. 2018; 1771:55-66. [PMID: 29633204]
Lab Members
Florian Dilasser
Research Fellow, Viasnoff Group
Geetika Sahni
Research Fellow, Viasnoff Lab
Wu Kaixiang Selwin
Research Fellow, Viasnoff Group
Anne Beghin
Senior Research Fellow, Viasnoff Group
Vidhyalakshmi Acharya
PhD Student, Viasnoff Lab
Harini Rajendiran
Research Assistant, Viasnoff Group
Aditya Arora
Research Fellow, Viasnoff Group
Fu Chaoyu
PhD Student, Viasnoff Group, Sheetz Group