Texas Border Business
A Texas A&M University-Kingsville alumnus is working on research that could lead to therapies to treat COVID-19.
Jesus Silvas, who received his master’s degree in Biology from A&M-Kingsville, is now a postdoctoral researcher at Georgia State University.
According to a news release from the University of Georgia, a multidisciplinary team of six researchers in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences is combining their expertise in life-threatening, infectious diseases and chronic inflammatory diseases to develop therapeutics and vaccines to fight the coronavirus disease.
Silvas is currently working in the lab of Christopher Basler, professor, and director of the Center for Microbial Pathogenesis. Basler also is a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Microbial Pathogenesis.
“I am proud that Jesus is representing (A&M-Kingsville) by doing outstanding research that directly impacts the current health crisis due to COVID-19,” said Dr. Enrique Massa, Associate Professor and Chair of Biological and Health Sciences. “Jesus was a phenomenal student and I’m glad to see he is continuing his scientific career.”
Silvas graduated from Sul Ross State University with his B.S. In 2006 and joined Texas A&M-Kingsville as an MS student in Biology in 2008. He graduated in 2011. He then pursued his Ph.D. At the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) from 2011-2017. He is now a postdoctoral fellow at Georgia State University working in the laboratory of Dr. Christopher Basler.
Basler’s research seeks to identify candidate therapeutics that inhibit viral genome replication of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19, according to the release.
For more information on the research at Georgia State University, read the news release at https://news.gsu.edu/2020/04/07/georgia-state-biomedical-scientists-join-the-global-race-to-fight-covid-19/.
