Nancy Da Silva
Associate DeanStudent Affairs UndergraduateProfessorChemical and Biomolecular EngineeringProfessor (Joint Appointment)Biomedical Engineering
Undergraduate Student Affairs Office: 265 MSTB
Office: 3446 Interdisciplinary Science & Engineering Building
Lab: 3540 Interdisciplinary Science & Engineering Building
ndasilva@uci.edu
(949) 824-8288 Office
(949) 824-2541
Samueli School of Engineering
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA 92697
Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, Chemical Engineering, 1988
M.S., California Institute of Technology, Chemical Engineering, 1985
B.S., University of Massachusetts, Chemical Engineering, 1982
Da Silva's primary research focus is molecular biotechnology. Her research emphasizes
molecular-level design combined with subsequent application and analysis, and has
focused on the important industrial yeasts: Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Bakers' yeast), Pichia pastoris, Kluyveromyces lactis, and Kluyveromyces marxianus.
A major research area is metabolic pathway engineering, including the development
of improved methods and tools. Current applications range from engineering S. cerevisiae for the synthesis of polyketides (a very valuable class of pharmaceuticals) to the
engineering of yeast for the enhanced uptake and sequestration of arsenic (an environmental
application). There is also a strong emphasis on biorenewables in the Da Silva group,
including two interdisciplinary projects related to biofuels, and one on the synthesis
of biorenewable chemicals (part of CBiRC, an NSF Engineering Research Center at ISU).
Another major research effort is a collaborative project on the synthesis of cell-responsive
biopolymers in yeast.