Julio Cesar da Silva

He graduate in Physics in 2004 and received his Ms.C. from the Physics Institute "Gleb Wataghin" of University Campinas in 2007. He also concluded his PhD. on Physics and the structure of protein using Small-Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) technique has the main role in his work. I have worked at the SAXS Beamline of the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS) for many years. My first research experience was the study of two industrially important natural fats: cocoa butter and cupuassu fat using SAXS and diffraction combined with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). This research led to a development of an integrated instrumentation for performing simultaneous time-resolved WAXS/SAXS/DSC experiments at the SAXS1 beamline of the LNLS. Since my Ph.D. and now in my postdoctoral period, I have been studying the conformation of flexible multidomain proteins, unstructured proteins and complexes. The SAXS technique plays the most important role in my work. The aim is finding evidence of structural details of those proteins and obtaining low resolution 3D average models. The results could help to understand the complex machinery of some of those proteins in the biological processes. During that time I have acquired a strong background in SAXS beamline instrumentation and data analysis. This is added to my involvement in studies with ab initio and rigid body modeling of proteins applying state-of-the art computing methods and investigation of polymorphism of other macromolecules like natural fats. I have some programming experience. Due to my work with protein, I have also gained experience in some Biology laboratory activities including E. coli expression, protein purification using affinity chromatography and gel filtration techniques. I took advantage of that opportunity to gain experience in some biophysical techniques: circular dichroism, Dynamic Light Scattering and Size-exclusion chromatography. (Source: Lattes Curriculum)