
Bruno Silva
Staff Researcher
Nanodevices
Bruno Silva is currently a staff researcher in the Nanodevices group at INL. Dr Silva’s main interest is to use colloidal science and nanotechnology to provide better gene delivery solutions for healthcare.
To achieve this goal the team relies on (i) microfluidic device fabrication to manipulate and control lipid-DNA nanoparticle formation, and on (ii) advanced characterization methods such as synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy (FCCS) to provide important insights about how mRNA and DNA interact with liposomes to form structurally-diverse nanoparticles. This knowledge is crucial to improve formulation efficacy in therapeutic applications.
Bruno Silva holds a PhD (2009) in Chemistry from the University of Porto, Portugal, where he worked in the topics of Physical Chemistry, Soft Matter and Colloidal Science. He focused on the phase behaviour and nanostructure of self-assembled surfactant systems, using small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) as the main characterization tool. As a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow at the University of California Santa Barbara, USA, and Lund University, Sweden, he worked on the structural control of cationic liposome-DNA nanoparticles (also known as CL-DNAs or lipoplexes) and on the development of microfluidic devices with in-situ small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) for studies of soft matter underflow and out-of-equilibrium conditions.
Selected Publications
- Ana I. Gómez‐Varela, Ricardo Gaspar, Adelaide Miranda, Juliana L. Assis, Rafael R.H.F. Valverde, Marcelo Einicker‐Lamas, Bruno F.B. Silva, Pieter A.A. De Beule
Fluorescence Cross‐Correlation Spectroscopy as a Valuable Tool to Characterize Cationic Liposome‐DNA Nanoparticle Assembly
J. Biophotonics 14, 2021, e202000200
- Ricardo Gaspar, Filipe Coelho, Bruno F.B. Silva
Lipid-Nucleic Acid Complexes: Physicochemical Aspects and Prospects for Cancer Treatment
Molecules 25, 2020, 5006
- Ana Ramalheiro, Juan L. Paris, Bruno F.B. Silva, Liliana R. Pires
Rapidly Dissolving Microneedles for the Delivery of Cubosome-like Liquid Crystalline Nanoparticles with Sustained Release of Rapamycin
Int. J. Pharm. 591, 2020, 119942.
- Bruno F.B. Silva, Miguel Zepeda-Rosales, Neeraja Venkateswaran, Bretton J. Fletcher, Lester G. Carter, Tsutomu Matsui, Thomas M. Weiss, Jun Han, Youli Li, Ulf Olsson and Cyrus R. Safinya
Nematic Director Reorientation at Solid and Liquid Interfaces under Flow: SAXS Studies in a Microfluidic Device
Langmuir 31, 2015, 4361–4371.
- Bruno F. B. Silva, Eduardo F. Marques and Ulf Olsson
Unusual vesicle-micelle transitions in a salt-free catanionic surfactant: temperature and concentration effects.
Langmuir 24, 2008, 10746-10754.