Biography

About Me

Dr. Silva joined the Department of Biomedical Sciences at CMSRU in December 2021 and serves as an active learning group (ALG) facilitator.

Dr. Silva earned his doctorate in 2014 from the Department of Medicine at the Federal University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. While a PhD student, he collaborated with investigators at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston to study molecular mechanisms of cancer-inducing cachexia, a devastating wasting syndrome that affects many living cancer patients. Dr. Silva completed postdoctoral training at the University of Missouri, where he continued investigating molecular mechanisms of cachexia. There, Dr. Silva used an established preclinical model of elevated systemic levels of Angiotensin II to examine for the first time how the autophagy-lysosomal system regulates ANG II-induced skeletal muscle atrophy. This study was funded by an American Heart Association Postdoctoral fellowship.

Dr. Silva's long-term research interests focus on investigating the pathophysiological and molecular mechanisms regulating skeletal muscle disorders, including cancer and chronic kidney disease (CKD). His research will also seek to understand how mitochondria are affected during the progression of these catabolic conditions. At CMSRU, Dr. Silva's research program examines autophagy's role in cancer- or CKD-induced skeletal muscle atrophy.

Dr. Silva's laboratory uses mice as a preclinical model to investigate catabolic conditions induced
cachexia. The lab utilizes several approaches, including but not limited to animal handling (surgeries -survival and terminal), biochemical assays (western blotting for protein expression; RT-qPCR for gene expression; fresh enriched mitochondrial isolation), and functional studies in skeletal muscle and mitochondria.