The PostDocs Forum

Gio da Silva

Postdoc Gio da Silva is our Featured Scientist of the Month. Read on to find out more about his passion for the sciences and love of teaching as well as valuable tips about choosing a Postdoc lab and maintaining organization in the lab.

How did you first become interested in the science field?
I had an early fascination for how things worked.  As a child, I would always take my toys apart and put them back together.  Luckily they were still functional after I was done!  I used to spend a lot of time with my father, while he was fixing things around the house.  I was lucky to have quite an extensive library of books, especially like Dante, Homer, Kafka, Boccaccio, Cervantes, Plato, Aristotle and so on, as well as many books about art.  While reading those at an age too young to really grasp the content, I actually became more interested in the biographies of these “enlightened” men.  This interest led me the concept of the “Renaissance Man”; learned men who dabbled in all aspects of the intellectual realms, ranging from art to science.  I almost immediately started learning to play an instrument and dug into my math and science books.  The themes of art and science have been a constant in my life since the age of eight, and I am still an avid guitar player in my leisure time.

I was very lucky to have parents who supported my interests, and  great teachers who inspired me throughout my education. Once I started college, I was unsure whether engineering or medicine would be the best career.  Actually, a real science career was not an obvious choice until I took my first organic chemistry course.  Thanks to Dr. William Nixon at St. Petersburg College and his enthusiasm and ability to convey complex ideas in simple forms, I fell in love with chemistry and decided that would be my chosen career.

Toward my senior year in college, I had become frustrated with science.  I felt like I was acquiring so much knowledge and was not using it.  Thanks to Drs. Jay Palmer and Joseph Stanko at the University of South Florida, I was able to start undergraduate research in the area of inorganic synthesis, making new cisplatin compounds toward cancer treatment.  That was an incredibly valuable experience in my career.  I wanted to spend every available minute in the lab.  Inorganic chemistry surpassed my love for organic chemistry, and remains the foundation of my knowledge base to this day.

In graduate school I was lucky to find a great mentor in Dr. Li-June Ming.  We were a financially poor lab, all grad and undergrad students, no postdoctoral fellows.  While in Dr. Ming’s lab we learned the value of creativity, analytical thinking, collegiality, and passion toward our work.  This is also where I developed my love of teaching, as I had to be a TA for all 5 years of graduate school, and got a chance to mentor several undergraduate students.  Our research in the area of bioinorganic chemistry, elucidating the redox chemistry of neurodegenerative disorders has received wide acclaim and Dr. Ming’s lab is no longer poor!

In summary, it was a mixture of curiosity, finding a passion, and being inspired by my mentors that led me to a career in the sciences.

How did you first decide your area of research and eventually pick a PostDoc lab?
My first research endeavors as an undergraduate were in inorganic synthetic chemistry.  I chose to start research early because I was frustrated with purely textbook learning; not being able to apply the knowledge that I had accumulated for four years was a major catalyst to get me out of the desk and on to the bench.  I was very fortunate to meet the correct mentors who would encourage me.  Luckily, the University of South Florida has a great an undergraduate research program, and in a join effort with the Moffitt Cancer Center on campus, I was part of a drug discovery program, synthesizing cisplatin compounds.  At first, I thought a career in the private sector was my goal.

As Drs. Palmer and Stanko were nearly retired, and after about one year in their lab I had decided graduate school was in my future, I had to find another research route.  I looked at the entire chemistry faculty and eventually had a meeting with Dr. Li-June Ming to discuss the possibility of joining his group.  He introduced me to the exciting field of bioinorganic chemistry.  In his lab, my first project was purification and characterization of the metalloenzyme called astacin, a protease found in the gut of crayfish.  I remember spending countless hours in a cold room, running columns, testing activity of fractions, and having a great time.  So much so, I sort of stopped seeing the point in going to classes; I would spend all of my time in the lab, running experiments and keeping up with my course work by reading and working out problems on my own.  This routine took me to the end of my bachelor’s career.  It was also at this time that I had a chance to work for a pharmaceutical company, and decided that I was not interested in the private sector.

I stayed in Dr. Ming’s lab for graduate work.  It was at that time that it became obvious to me that in order to be a successful bioinorganic chemist that I would have to learn molecular biology.  Luckily, we found Dr. Brian Livingston from the biology department, an expert in echinoderm evolution and development.  Dr. Livingston took me into his lab and trained me in recombinant protein expression in E. coli.  I think between both labs I would spend 20 hours each day, 7 days a week, in the lab… and I really loved every minute of it.  With Dr. Livingston we expressed and characterized a metalloenzyme called Blastula Protease 10 from the sea urchin embryo.

The most productive aspect of my graduate career however began as Dr. Ming and I discussed Alzheimer’s disease and how no clear picture of the proposed chemistry had been presented in vitro.  He had stashed some amyloid beta peptide in the freezer, quite an expensive commodity at the time, waiting for the right time to tackle the project.  The next day I started working with the peptide and its copper-complex.  We really took a hardcore reaction chemistry approach to the research, which taught me the value of simple, inexpensive, and impactful research!  I guess the word to describe it is: elegant!  During that time I also had the chance to meet Alzheimer’s patients and really felt motivated to help.  I believe that mostly because scientists in general fail to communicate well with the public there is a misconception that basic science is no longer relevant and there is a huge push toward translational work, which can often times dilute the detail and impact of research projects.  Certainly there are exceptions.

Toward the end of my PhD training I applied to several universities across the US.  When in graduate school, I became fascinated with spectroscopy as a very powerful tool to investigate biomolecules and reactions.  I was made several offers including Berkeley and Northwestern, but chose to come to Rice University and work with Dr. Graham Palmer, one of the top biophysicists and EPR experts of the past 3 decades.  It was a good combination of research projects and attitude.  Ultimately when choosing a place to work, a place where you will spend countless hours, you have to be comfortable and want to show up to work.  Definitely a “vibe” aspect to choosing the proper place; certainly there are obvious questions to ask like: how many grants do you have, how many postdocs/graduate/undergraduate students, where are your former postdocs now, what are your work expectations, are the facilities appropriate for the research, and also ask their philosophy in training postdocs.  I have found through my affiliation with other local institutions that have 500-700 postdocs, that they are glorified graduate students only there for the labor.  That is not training!  Make sure that the postdoc mentor is willing to let you be creative, write fellowship grants, assist them with their grant writing, in other words, be part of the team!  Scientists from graduate students to postdocs are not labor.  We are part of the intellectual team, and often times the most creative part.

Gio with mentor Dr. Graham Palmer

Ultimately, I think that I enjoy tackling problems that have been around for a long time, but do not have clear answers.  To put it in “soccer terms”, I like being the guy who puts the ball in the back of the net, after the midfielders have sat around passing the ball!

What is your current research about?
My research now focuses on expression and physico-chemical characterization of proteins in the cytochrome b561 family.  These are widely distributed transmembrane proteins whose function is to shuttle electrons across membranes. Members of this family are ubiquitously distributed among phyla, and thus far assigned widely varying roles ranging from neurotransmitter synthesis, to dietary iron uptake, and tumor suppression in lung and breast cancers.  We use protein engineering, stopped-flow kinetics, EPR spectroscopy, pulse radiolysis, paramagnetic NMR techniques, magnetic circular dichroism and several other techniques to study structure and function of these proteins.

What is your favorite part of research and lab work? What is the worst part?
Certainly my favorite part of research is putting a good story together.  Designing experiments based on certain hypotheses, advancing the knowledge base beyond the current status.  I really see the scientific process being as creative as any other artistic endeavor, with the emotional content being replaced with analytical content.  To put into general terms I like to play a bit of “wheel of fortune”; there is a clue, maybe a couple of letters in the sentence and it is up to me to complete it by discovering every word.

The worst part about research is that I don’t have as much time to teach, as I would like.  I think we as scientists owe to society not only our discoveries in peer reviewed published works, but also we must disseminate the knowledge to the public at large and to students.  I also think that with the advent of the internet and electronic content, things like journal impact factor and institutional bias are obsolete concepts which bind us and can prevent professional development.

In your opinion, what is the most important quality for a scientist to be successful?
The most important qualities for a scientist are: curiosity, perseverance, and the ability to teach.  We must be always looking for answers and be curious.  Considering the success rate in grant funding and experiments is low, perseverance is a must.  We must teach.  Often times the reason why the public has issues with science is because we have not done a good job teaching new students or disseminating the knowledge to the public at large efficiently enough.

Other qualities include: be collegial, be tenacious, be nice and always smile (we are privileged to do what we do), treat others as you would like to be treated, learn to say “no”, keep mentors throughout your career, always read, and finally have a good work-life balance.  This last one is very important for creativity and productivity; eat well, exercise, have a hobby, and get enough sleep!

Can you share any tips for lab management and organization?
Lab management and organization are sort of environment-dependent.  Luckily I run a one man translational science operation.  From ordering supplies, to running experiments ranging from molecular biology to biophysics, and data analysis, I keep up with the rigors of organization by not letting anything “wait till tomorrow”.  Developing a culture of accountability, and not pushing things to another day are the best idea.  Most of the time, the things we push to another day would take literally 5 minutes to accomplish.  Developing a culture of procrastination results in a snowball effect of problems; next thing you know you are buried in backlogged work.  Keep all your journals and paperwork in files properly labeled!  Dating your notebook and data make it easy to refer back to your work.  Use post it notes on your computer screen!

What is your next step? Where do you plan to be in ten years?
I just received a NIH F32 fellowship, so in the next 2.5 years I will still be at Rice University.  Toward the last 6 months of my fellowship I will search for positions in academia.  The perfect position for me would be an institution that places as much emphasis on education as they do on research; although these are rarities these days, I cannot stay away from the classroom environment.  My “home” will likely be at a state university or small private college where I will develop a research program with students, combining all of my training.  I am especially curious about memory storage and retrieval in the brain.

Recent Publications:
Tay WM, Epperson JD, da Silva GF, & Ming LJ (2010). 1H NMR, mechanism, and mononuclear oxidative activity of the antibiotic metallopeptide bacitracin: the role of D-Glu-4, interaction with pyrophosphate moiety, DNA binding and cleavage, and bioactivity. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 132 (16), 5652-61 PMID: 20359222

da Silva GF, Lykourinou V, Angerhofer A, & Ming LJ (2009). Methionine does not reduce Cu(II)-beta-amyloid!–rectification of the roles of methionine-35 and reducing agents in metal-centered oxidation chemistry of Cu(II)-beta-amyloid. Biochimica et biophysica acta, 1792 (1), 49-55 PMID: 19061952