Prof. Nirmala D. Sirisena

Prof. Sirisena, is a Professor in Medical Genetics in the Department of Anatomy,
Genetics & Biomedical Informatics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo. Her
special interests are Clinical Genetics, Cancer Genetics and Genomics, Genomic
Medicine and Genomic Education. She provides clinical care and genetic counseling for
patients with diverse genetic diseases attending the genetics clinic at the Centre for
Genetics & Genomics. She is also involved in teaching medical genetics and genomics
to both undergraduate and postgraduate students in the Faculty and co-ordinating
research work related to both clinical genetics and cancer genomics.
She spearheads the cancer genetics programme in the Centre and has been involved in
integrating next-generation sequencing based cancer gene panel testing to the
repertoire of services offered through the clinic. She is also the Departmental co-
ordinator overseeing the international electives programme which provides short-
term training for overseas undergraduate medical students in the areas of anatomy,
histology, embryology and genetics.
She has presented her research work both locally and abroad and has authored
numerous publications arising out of the Centre, which have won several awards
including the Daphne Attygalle Award for the best paper in Cancer at the Sri Lanka
Medical Association 130 th Anniversary International Medical Congress 2017 and the
Korean Breast Cancer Foundation Scholarship award for outstanding oral
presentation at the Global Breast Cancer Conference, South Korea in 2017 and 2019.
She was also awarded the Prof. N.D.W. Lionel Memorial Oration by the Sri Lanka
Medical Association at the 132 nd Anniversary International Medical Congress 2019.
Her current research work involves characterizing the molecular genetic determinants
of hereditary and sporadic breast cancer in Sri Lankan women.