Rate My Professor Gustavo Silva

The Silva Lab investigates mechanisms regulating gene expression at transcriptional and translational levels during stress, with emphasis on ubiquitin control of protein synthesis and degradation. Research focuses on oxidative stress responses, redox regulation of ubiquitination, and ubiquitin enzymes affecting mitochondrial function, energy metabolism, and cellular health. The lab employs cellular and molecular biology, proteomics, structural biology, next-generation sequencing, and CRISPR screens toward ubiquitin-based therapies. Funding includes NIH grants as principal investigator, such as those on ubiquitination in stress responses and translation control, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Science Diversity and Leadership Award (2023, $1.15 million over five years), and training programs. Key publications include "Deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs): Regulation, homeostasis, and oxidative stress response" (Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2021), "K63 polyubiquitination is a new modulator of the oxidative stress response" (Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 2015), "Redox control of the deubiquitinating enzyme Ubp2 regulates translation during stress" (Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2024), and "The ubiquitin conjugase Rad6 mediates ribosome pausing during oxidative stress" (Cell Reports, 2023). Awards encompass 2025 Biology Teaching Award, 2025 Bass Society of Fellows, 2024 Paul T. Englund Emerging Scholar Award, top 5% undergraduate instructors in Natural Sciences (2024), and 2023 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring. Silva co-founded the Duke Black Think Tank, serves on the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Maximizing Access Committee, and acts as discipline leader and ambassador for the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists.