Alexandre da Silva

Alexandre da Silva, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Medicine. His research investigates neurohumoral control of cardiovascular and metabolic functions, with particular focus on the leptin-melanocortin system's role in cardiac protection. Current projects examine how parental obesity programs offspring susceptibility to cardiovascular-renal diseases.

Research expertise includes:

• Leptin-mediated cardiorenal protection during ischemia/reperfusion
• Developmental origins of cardiometabolic diseases
• Sex differences in cardiovascular responses to stress
• Mitochondrial mechanisms of diabetic-hypertensive kidney injury
• Therapeutic targeting of brain metabolic pathways

Dr. da Silva employs chronic instrumentation techniques in rodent models, echocardiography, and molecular analyses to investigate mechanisms of cardiac and renal injury. His work has identified novel protective effects of CNS leptin administration in kidney ischemia-reperfusion models and characterized sex-specific programming effects of parental obesity.