Gustavo M. Silva

Assistant Professor of Biology

Office: 
130 Science Drive, 3103 French, Durham, NC 27708
Campus Box: 
130 Science Drive, Box 90338, Durham, NC 27708
Email: 
gustavo.silva@duke.edu
Gustavo M. Silva
My main research goal is to understand and be able to control how cells respond to stressful and harmful conditions, which are the underlying causes of many human diseases. To achieve this goal, I study cellular response to stress at the protein level and aim to characterize the different regulatory functions mediated by the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS), essential machinery involved in modulating protein dynamics. Ultimately, regulating specific UPS roles will provide new tools to increase cellular tolerance to a variety of environmental stresses, which is highly relevant for a variety of degenerative diseases. The main focus of my lab is to investigate the unprecedented regulation of translation mediated by ubiquitin. I laid the groundwork for this research investigating the ubiquitination response in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and we will explore the evolutionary conservation of this pathway and its function in neuronal cells. Our lab is excited to keep pushing the field forward and to use a combination of proteomics, genomics, and molecular methods to understand the mechanisms by which ubiquitin regulates translation, and ultimately, cellular response to stress.

Education

  • Associate Research Scientist, Center For Genomics And Systems Biology, Department Of Biology, New York University 2011 - 2017

  • Ph.D., University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) 2010

  • Lic., University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) 2007

  • B.Sc., University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) 2004

Silva, G. M., W. Wei, S. Manohar, and C. Vogel. “Identification and quantification of K63-ubiquitinated proteins in neuronal cells by high-resolution mass spectrometry.” In Analysis of Post-Translational Modifications and Proteolysis in Neuroscience, 114:111–25. New York, NY: Humana Press, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1007/7657_2015_95. Full Text

Zhou, Ye, Panagiotis L. Kastritis, Shannon E. Dougherty, Jonathan Bouvette, Allen L. Hsu, Laura Burbaum, Shyamal Mosalaganti, et al. “Structural impact of K63 ubiquitin on yeast translocating ribosomes under oxidative stress.” Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 117, no. 36 (September 8, 2020): 22157–66. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2005301117. Full Text

Blount, Jessica R., Kozeta Libohova, Gustavo M. Silva, and Sokol V. Todi. “Isoleucine 44 Hydrophobic Patch Controls Toxicity of Unanchored, Linear Ubiquitin Chains through NF-κB Signaling.” Cells 9, no. 6 (June 22, 2020). https://doi.org/10.3390/cells9061519. Full Text

Manohar, Sandhya, Samson Jacob, Jade Wang, Keira A. Wiechecki, Hiromi W. L. Koh, Vanessa Simões, Hyungwon Choi, Christine Vogel, and Gustavo M. Silva. “Polyubiquitin Chains Linked by Lysine Residue 48 (K48) Selectively Target Oxidized Proteins In Vivo.” Antioxidants & Redox Signaling 31, no. 15 (November 2019): 1133–49. https://doi.org/10.1089/ars.2019.7826. Full Text

Back, Songhee, Andrew W. Gorman, Christine Vogel, and Gustavo M. Silva. “Site-Specific K63 Ubiquitinomics Provides Insights into Translation Regulation under Stress.” Journal of Proteome Research 18, no. 1 (January 2019): 309–18. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jproteome.8b00623. Full Text

Lin, Yu-Cheng, Matthew D. Sekedat, William Cole Cornell, Gustavo M. Silva, Chinweike Okegbe, Alexa Price-Whelan, Christine Vogel, and Lars E. P. Dietrich. “Phenazines Regulate Nap-Dependent Denitrification inPseudomonas aeruginosaBiofilms.” Journal of Bacteriology 200, no. 9 (February 20, 2018). https://doi.org/10.1128/jb.00031-18. Full Text

Silva, Gustavo Monteiro, and Christine Vogel. “Quantifying gene expression: the importance of being subtle.” Molecular Systems Biology 12, no. 10 (October 2016): 885–885. https://doi.org/10.15252/msb.20167325. Full Text

Costa, João Pinto da, Rui Vitorino, Gustavo M. Silva, Christine Vogel, Armando C. Duarte, and Teresa Rocha-Santos. “A synopsis on aging—Theories, mechanisms and future prospects.” Ageing Research Reviews 29 (August 2016): 90–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2016.06.005. Full Text

Toledo, Rodrigo A., Yuejuan Qin, Zi-Ming Cheng, Qing Gao, Shintaro Iwata, Gustavo M. Silva, Manju L. Prasad, et al. “Recurrent Mutations of Chromatin-Remodeling Genes and Kinase Receptors in Pheochromocytomas and Paragangliomas.” Clinical Cancer Research 22, no. 9 (May 1, 2016): 2301–10. https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.ccr-15-1841. Full Text

Silva, Gustavo Monteiro, and Christine Vogel. “Mass spectrometry analysis of K63-ubiquitinated targets in response to oxidative stress.” Data in Brief 4 (September 2015): 130–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2015.05.002. Full Text

Silva, Gustavo M., Daniel Finley, and Christine Vogel. “K63 polyubiquitination is a new modulator of the oxidative stress response.” Nature Structural & Molecular Biology 22, no. 2 (February 2015): 116–23. https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.2955. Full Text

Pages

Selected Grants

Dissecting the roles of ubiquitin in translation control awarded by National Institutes of Health (Principal Investigator). 2020 to 2025

Genetic and Genomics Training Grant awarded by National Institutes of Health (Mentor). 2020 to 2025

Defining the roles of ubiquitination during the environmental stress response awarded by National Institutes of Health (Principal Investigator). 2018 to 2022

Genetics Training Grant awarded by National Institutes of Health (Mentor). 1979 to 2020

Organization and Function of Cellular Structure awarded by National Institutes of Health (Mentor). 1975 to 2020

Fellowships, Supported Research, & Other Grants

- Linkage-specific ubiquitylation patterns as highly sensitive markers for neurodegenerative diseases awarded by NIH (SBIR) (2016 to 2018)

Defining the roles of ubiquitination during the environmental stress response awarded by NIH (K99) (2015 to 2017)

Modeling Protein Degradation - Evaluation of Strategies and Targets awarded by NSF (EAGER) (2013 to 2015)

Characterization of the S-glutathiolation of the yeast 20S Proteasome awarded by PhD FAPESP Fellowship (2005 to 2010)

Study of 20S Proteasome redox regulation awarded by CNPq Undergraduate Fellowship (2001 to 2004)