Jerson Lima Silva is Professor of Biochemistry in the Institute of Medical Biochemistry Leopoldo de Meis at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Jerson Silva is currently the President of the Rio de Janeiro State Funding Agency (Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro). His main research interest is the study of the mechanisms underlying protein folding, virus assembly and protein misfolding, important in many human diseases, including cancer, prion and Parkinson´s diseases. Silva is member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and the National Academy of Medicine. Silva is the Founding Director of the Jiri Jonas National Center of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (UFRJ) and is currently the Coordinator of the National Institute of Science and Technology for Structural Biology and Bioimaging (INBEB).