Page 41 - CBAC Newsletter 2013

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Jonathan Silva, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Department of Biomedical Engineering

Research Interests:

Jonathan Silva studies how perturbations to molecular motions propagate
across time and spatial scales to affect the bioelectric systems.

His team is currently focused on the cardiac sodium channel, which
initiates cardiac excitation and contraction. By studying these channels using
simultaneous fluorescence and ionic current recording, the consequences of
genetic mutations and drug treatments can be understood at the molecular
level. These results can then be incorporated into detailed computer models
to understand their electrophysiological consequences at the organ level.

Biography: Education:

Jonathan Silva joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering in 2008 Ph.D. in Biomedical
July 2012. As a postdoctoral fellow at the Washington University School of Engineering., Washington
Medicine, Professor Silva received the prestigious Burroughs Wellcome Fund University in St. Louis,
Career Award at the Scientific Interface (CASI), which is given to scientists St. Louis, MO
with backgrounds in physics, mathematics, computer science and 2004 M.S. in Biomedical
engineering who want to explore the new frontier of biology. Engineering, Case
Western Reserve
Professor Silva’s doctoral studies were conducted in Dr. Yoram Rudy’s lab- University, Cleveland, OH
oratory at Washington University, Department of Biomedical Engineering, 2000 B.S. in Biomedical
where he developed a new type of multi-scale cardiac action potential mod- Engineering, The Johns
els that incorporate detailed descriptions of ion channel molecular motions. Hopkins University,
Baltimore, MD
Selected Publications:

“Voltage Sensor Movements Describe Slow Inactivation of NaV Channels
I: Wild Type”, JR Silva and Goldstein SAN, Journal of General Physiology.
141:309-321.
"Voltage Sensor Movements Describe Slow Inactivation of NaV Channels II:
L689I Mutants”, JR Silva and Goldstein SAN, Journal of General Physiology.
141:323-334.
“A multiscale model linking ion-channel molecular dynamics and electrostat-
ics to the cardiac action potential”, JR Silva, et al. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences. 106(27):11102-11106.
“Multi-scale electrophysiology modeling: from atom to organ”, JR Silva,
Y Rudy. Journal of General Physiology. 135(6):575.
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