
MBI Hosts Students from Sakura High School!
MBI hosted students from Sakura High School, Chiba, Japan on 22nd January 2026 for an outreach session designed to spark curiosity about mechanobiology and research careers.

MBI hosted students from Sakura High School, Chiba, Japan on 22nd January 2026 for an outreach session designed to spark curiosity about mechanobiology and research careers.

In a study published in the Journal of Cell Science, led by Ryosuke Nishimura at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS, researchers developed an optogenetic tool to precisely manipulate talin’s structure and observe the resulting cellular behavior.

The East Asian Single-Molecule Biophysics Symposium 2025 (EASMB2025) held from 24 to 26 November at the Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium in the Education Resource Centre, UTown, National University of Singapore showcased global participation and relevance.

Researchers from the Chan Lab at MBI demonstrate the importance of compressive stress exhibited by theca cells in healthy follicle maturation and surrounding support cells, suggesting a new perspective in understanding infertility.

Researchers from the Chan Lab at MBI develop a a novel method called quantitative micro-elastography to create detailed 3D maps of ovarian stiffness in mice—revealing crucial insights that could lead to new infertility treatments.

Researchers from the Pavesi Group at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS develops in vitro models of liver tumors to study how the presence of vasculature networks affect cancer therapies.

MBI hosted students from Sakura High School, Chiba, Japan on 22nd January 2026 for an outreach session designed to spark curiosity about mechanobiology and research careers.

Beyond the Trend: Creating the Next Frontier in Cell Biology. A message from Prof. Rong Li, MBI Director and 2026 President of the American Society for Cell Biology.

MBI warmly welcomes Shailaja Seetharaman as a MBI PI leading the Vascular Mechano-Medicine Lab.

The East Asian Single-Molecule Biophysics Symposium 2025 (EASMB2025) held from 24 to 26 November at the Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium in the Education Resource Centre, UTown, National University of Singapore showcased global participation and relevance.

Professor Lim Chwee Teck elected as an International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and received the Otto Schmitt Award from IFMBE

Dr. Jennifer Young received the Robert Brown Promising Researcher Award for her MOE AcRF Tier 2 Grant

Emeritus Professor Hew Choy Leong, Senior Advisor to MBI, is honoured with an Outstanding Alumni Award for Academic Achievement.

On Friday 28 June 2019, MBI held an appreciation dinner for Prof. Michael Sheetz to mark his time as Director of MBI. Prof. Sheetz has been MBI Director since its inception, having been recruited by Prof. Hew Choy Leong to lead a new RCE in Mechanobiology in 2008.

MBI Director Prof. Li Rong has been awarded the 2019 Sandra K. Masur Senior Leadership Award from the American Society of Cell Biology (ASCB). This award recognizes cell biology researchers whose “outstanding scientific achievements are coupled with a record of active leadership in mentoring both men and women in scientific careers.”

MBI Research Associate Visalatchi Thiagarajan has been chosen as one of the top ten laboratory technicians in Singapore, in the inaugural Lab Tech of the Year 2019 awards given out by Asian Scientist Magazine.

MBI Senior Research Fellow Rishita Changede wins the Best Presentation award at the TOPIM Winter Conference 2019, for her presentation on the role of integrin nanoclusters as the basis for the formation of cell-matrix adhesions that aid in sensing the mechanical properties, such as rigidity, of the underlying tissue.

For the fifth year in a row, researchers at NUS have been crowned as some of the most influential in the world. MBI Principal Investigator Lim Chwee Teck is one of those honored in 2018.

MBI Principal Investigator and Deputy Director Professor GV Shivashankar is featured in the Channel News Asia documentary series, Becoming Human: Unnatural Genius to discuss how his lab uses AI and and nuclear mechanogenomic architecture to detect early stage cancer cells.

SNU students toured the MBI labs, familiarizing themselves with the methodology and applications of state-of-the art techniques like microfabrication, micropatterning, and superresolution microscopy through demonstrations conducted by MBI researchers.

MBI hosted BIOS2017 on Friday, the 15th of September. The scientific talks were followed by an hour-long panel discussion that was aimed at bringing out the various contributing factors towards gender gaps at work place.

MBI NUS hosted BIOS2017 on 15th of September. BIOS, a MBI Women in Science initiative, is a unique national-level biology symposium that aims to bring together women researchers in Singapore from diverse realms of life sciences research.

The symposium explored multi-pronged approaches to tackle gender gaps in STEM education at the individual, family & peers, schools/educational institutions, society and government levels.

On August 16th, a group of 13 students from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), China visited the Mechanobiology Institute (MBI), National University of Singapore to learn more about scientific research in Singapore.

Emeritus Professor Hew Choy Leong, Senior Advisor to MBI, is honoured with an Outstanding Alumni Award for Academic Achievement.

On Friday 28 June 2019, MBI held an appreciation dinner for Prof. Michael Sheetz to mark his time as Director of MBI. Prof. Sheetz has been MBI Director since its inception, having been recruited by Prof. Hew Choy Leong to lead a new RCE in Mechanobiology in 2008.

MBI Director Prof. Li Rong has been awarded the 2019 Sandra K. Masur Senior Leadership Award from the American Society of Cell Biology (ASCB). This award recognizes cell biology researchers whose “outstanding scientific achievements are coupled with a record of active leadership in mentoring both men and women in scientific careers.”

MBI Research Associate Visalatchi Thiagarajan has been chosen as one of the top ten laboratory technicians in Singapore, in the inaugural Lab Tech of the Year 2019 awards given out by Asian Scientist Magazine.

MBI Principal Investigator and Deputy Director Professor GV Shivashankar is featured in the Channel News Asia documentary series, Becoming Human: Unnatural Genius to discuss how his lab uses AI and and nuclear mechanogenomic architecture to detect early stage cancer cells.

MBI Senior Research Fellow Rishita Changede wins the Best Presentation award at the TOPIM Winter Conference 2019, for her presentation on the role of integrin nanoclusters as the basis for the formation of cell-matrix adhesions that aid in sensing the mechanical properties, such as rigidity, of the underlying tissue.