Research Experience
- Mitochondrial non-coding region variations and breast cancer (MPhil/PhD research project): Molecular techniques that I am currently working with include- Manual DNA extraction and purification techniques, PCR and qPCR primer designing, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) based DNA amplification, Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) studies, real-time (q) PCR, first hand exposure to DNA sequencing based on Sanger
technology, bioinformatics and statistical analysis of sequence data. In addition, I was directly involved in recruiting patients for this study from the National Cancer Institute in Colombo Sri Lanka and the Oncological wards of Kandy and Jaffna hospitals; as well as healthy controls (a total of approximately 200 people). I also worked closely with a total team of 10 clinicians (oncologists and oncological surgeons) in patient recruitment and follow up.
- Title: Isolation, Biochemical and Molecular Characterisation of Probiotics in Fermented Traditional Rice varieties.
Supervisors: R. Samarasekera, O. V. D. S. J. Weerasena, D. M. W. D. Divisekera
The outcome of this research was published in a thesis and presented for grading in completion of the Master’s degree in Molecular Life Sciences. Techniques gained: Biochemical assays, sample slides preparation and observation, bacterial cell culture, media preparation, bacterial cell culture isolation and molecular identification.
Professional Qualifications
- Certificate Course in Molecular Biological Techniques conducted by the Institute of Biochemistry, Biotechnology and Microbiology, University of Colombo – August 2010.
- Pre-conference workshop on Human DNA identification conducted by the Institute of Biochemistry, Biotechnology and Microbiology, University of Colombo – September 2014.
- Post-conference workshop on Stem cell biology conducted by the Institute of Bio-chemistry, Biotechnology and Microbiology, University of Colombo – September 2014
- Introduction to Probability & Data with R – Duke University (through Coursera)
- Indo-Swiss 4 day course on Genetic Variant Analysis (NGS) – Hosted by Functional Genomics Center – Zurich – March 9th -12th 2021
- Currently following – Online Mini-Course – The Basics of CRISPR/Cas-9 – The Jackson Laboratory
