Miss. Ann Dharshika Shangaradas

Temporary Academic Staff

Department of Chemistry
University of Colombo
Colombo 00300
Sri Lanka

Email: rdharshika@yahoo.com

Academic & Professional Qualifications

  • BSc

    B. Sc in and Biochemistry & Molecular biology (Special)

    Faculty of science, University of Colombo

    Research Interest

    • RNA biology, Gene therapy, Immunology, Cancer Biology.

    Research

    • Final Year Research project: Development of riboswitches mediated biosensor to detect fluoride levels in drinking water; This research is designed with the aim of determining F – content of water samples with the aid of naturally occurring bacterial riboswitches. The research work was carried out with the use of E.coli BW25113 cells transformed with recombinant vector pRS414 carrying either crcB knockout fluoride responsive riboswitch or WT fluoride responsive riboswitch from Pseudomonas syringae. Assay was carried out with the use of X-gal which get converted to a blue coloured compound (5,5’-dibromo-4,4’-dichloro-indigo) with the presence of F – that result in the expression of the downstream gene lacZ. Absorbance and fluorescence measurements of 5,5’-dibromo-4,4’-dichloro-indigo formed was used to qualitatively determine the groundwater F – content.Supervisors: Dr. Gayathri N. Silva, Prof. R. S. Dassanayake.