🇸🇬 Ronni da Silva

Ronni da Silva

PhD, University of Nottingham
Advisor: Ruth Griffin
ronni.dasilva [at] smart.mit.edu



Ronni received his PhD from University of Nottingham (UK) in 2019. His PhD research elucidated the molecular mechanisms in Neisseria meningitidis for lipoprotein processing and localisation of Factor H binding protein (FHbp), an antigen currently used in two vaccine formulations against the serogroup B of N. meningitidis. Ronni demonstrated that FHbp, thought to be a lipoprotein, can be exported to the outer membrane without processing due to amino acid substitutions on its signal peptide. This could have implications for vaccine formulation and predicted coverage.

Ronni is originally from Brazil, but has spent time in the US, the UK and Germany for his education. In Singapore, Ronni is a post-doc within the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), working on a joint project with Prof. Jianzhu Chen (MIT) and Kimberly Kline (NTU). Ronni is part of the SMART Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) integrated research group which is a unique translational research and entrepreneurship program that aims to solve the growing threat of resistance to antimicrobial drugs. Ronni is particularly interested in harnessing the power of the human immune system to tackle AMR. In keeping with Kline lab interests, Ronni will be working with microorganisms of medical relevance including E. faecalis and E. coli.

You can find Ronni with a book and a cup of coffee when he is not reading an article or planning his next experiment. When not reading, Ronni is planning which country to visit next and the new type of food he could try when in there.

1. Mitoxantrone targets both host and bacteria to overcome vancomycin resistance in Entercoccus faecalis. da Silva RAG, Wong JJ, Antypas H, Choo PY, Goh K, Jolly S, Liang C, Tay Kwan Sing L, Veleba M, Hu G, Chen J, Kline KA. (2023). Science Advances 9, eadd9280.
2. Enterococcus faecalis alters endo-lysosomal trafficking to replicate and persist within mammalian cells. da Silva RAG, Tay WH, Ho FK, Tanoto FR, Chong KKL, Choo PY,
Ludwig A, Kline KA (2022). PLoS Pathog 18, e1010434
3. Variant Signal Peptides of Vaccine Antigen, FHbp, Impair Processing Affecting Surface Localization and Antibody-Mediated Killing in Most Meningococcal Isolates. da Silva, R.A.G., Karlyshev, A.V., Oldfield, N.J., Wooldridge, K.G., Bayliss, C.D., Ryan, A., Griffin, R. (2019). Front. Microbiol. 10: 2847. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2019.02847
4. Insights into the Full-Length SRPK2 Structure and its Hydrodynamic Behavior. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules.  Barbosa, E., Seraphim, T., Gandin, C.A., Teixeira, L.F., da Silva, R.A.G., Righetto, G., Gonçalves, K., Vasconcellos, R.S., Almeida, M., Silva Jr, A., Fietto, J., Kobarg, J., Gileadi, C., Massirer, K., Borges, J.C., Oliveira-Neto, M., Bressan, G. (2019).  doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2019.06.135.
5. The role of apolipoprotein N‐acyl transferase, Lnt, in the lipidation of factor H binding protein of Neisseria meningitidis strain MC58 and its potential as a drug target. da Silva, R. A. G., Churchward, C. P., Karlyshev, A. V., Eleftheriadou, O., Snabaitis, A. K., Longman, M. R., Ryan, A., and Griffin, R. (2017). British Journal of Pharmacology, 174: 2247–2260. doi: 10.1111/bph.13660.
6. Splicing Regulators and Their Roles in Cancer Biology and Therapy. Silva, M. R., Moreira, G. A., da Silva, R. A. G., Barbosa, E. A. A., Siqueira, R. P., Teixera, R. R., Lamego, M. R. A., Silva-Júnior, A., Fietto, J. L. R., Bressan, G. C. (2015). BIOMED RES INT, 2015: 1-12. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/150514.