• E-mail(s) : nisansalas@wyb.ac.lk
  • Mobile Number: +94 - 0764750805
  • Office Number:
  • Address: Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Wayamba University of Sri Lanka

Other Profiles

Dr. (Mrs.) M. N. S. Thilakarathne

Senior Lecturer Gr-II

Department of Biochemistry

Academic Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry, Wayne State University, USA
  • B.Sc. Special in Chemistry (First Class Honors), University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka

Professional Qualifications / Memberships / Experience

  • Member of Sri Lanka Association of Advancement of Science (SLAAS)
  • Member of American Chemical Society (ACS)
  • Post - Doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Biological Sciences, Wayne State University, USA
  • Graduate Teaching / Research Assistant, Department of Chemistry, Wayne State University, USA
  • Lecturer (Probationary), Department of Marine Engineering, General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, Sri Lanka
  • Temporary Demonstrator, Department of Chemistry, University Of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka

Scholarships/ Awards/ Medal/Grants

  • People's Choice Award of the Three minute Thesis (3-MT) competition, Graduate and Postdoctoral Research Symposium, Wayne State University, Michigan, USA, 2017
  • Travel Award, Future of BioScience Graduate and postdoctoral Training, Part 2 (FOBGAPT 2), Wayne State University, Graduate School, Detroit, MI, USA, 2017
  • Travel Award, 251th American Chemical Society National meeting, Oral presentation, BIOL Division, San Diego, CA, USA, 2016
  • Bronze medal in Inter university Chemistry competition, The Royal Society of Chemistry, Sri Lanka, 2009
  • First place winner of the Three minute Thesis (3-MT) competition, Graduate and postdoctoral research symposium, Wayne State University, Michigan, USA, 2016

Research Interest

  • Bioactive compounds with antimicrobial and anticancer activity
  • Biomolecular Condensates
  • Educational Research

Administrative Contributions / Committees (University / Faculty)

  • Member of Faculty Research and Higher Degrees Committee (FRHDC), Faculty of Medicine, Wayamba University of Sri Lanka
  • Committee co-chair of professional development, Post-doctoral association Wayne State University, USA

Publications

1. International refereed journals & international conference proceedings International refereed journals

Biochemistry Research Publications

  1. Muthunayake, N. S., Islam, R., Inutan, E. D., Colangelo, W., Trimpin, S., Cunnigham, P. R. & Chow, C. S. 2020. Expression and In Vivo Characterization of the  ntimicrobial Peptide Oncocin and Variants Binding to Ribosomes. Biochemistry, 59, 3380-3391.
  2. Muthunayke, N. S., Tomares, D. T., Childers, W. S. & Schrader, J. M. 2020. Phase-separated bacterial ribonucleoprotein bodies organize mRNA decay. Wiley Interdiscip Rev RNA, 11, e1599.
  3. Muthunayake, N. S., Al-Husini, N. & Schrader, J. M. 2020. Differential Centrifugation to Enrich Bacterial Ribonucleoprotein Bodies (BR bodies) from Caulobacter crescentus. STAR Protoc, 1,
  1. Al-Husini, N., Tomares, D. T., Pfaffenberger, Z. J., Muthunayake, N. S., Samad, M. A., Zuo, T., Bitar, O., Aretakis, J. R., Bharmal, M. M., Gega, A., Biteen, J. S., Childers, W. S. & Schrader, J. M. 2020. BR-Bodies Provide Selectively Permeable Condensates that Stimulate mRNA Decay and Prevent Release of Decay Intermediates. Mol Cell, 78, 670-682 e8.
  1. Trimpin, S., Moreno-Pedraza, A., Yenchick, F., Hoang, K., Pophristic, M., Karki, S., Marshall, D., Lee, C., Lu, I.-C., El-Baba, T., Lutomski, C., Wang, B., Pagnotti, V., Meher, A., Chakrabarty, S., Imperial, L., Madarshahian, S., LEACH, S., Gibson, S., ELia, E., Lietz, C., Richards, A., Thawoos, S., Davis, E., Jarois, D., Woodall, D., Liao, G., Muthunayake, N. S., Redding, M., Reynolds, C., Anthony, T., Vithanarachchi, S., Dement, P., Adewale, A., Yan, L., Wager-Miller, J., Ahn, Y.-H., Sanderson, T., Przyklenk, K., Greenburg, M., Suits, A., Allen, M., Narayan, S., Caruso, J., Stemmer, P., Nguyen, H., Weidner, S., Rackers, K.,Djuric, A., Shulaev, V., Hendrickson, T., Chow, C., Pflum, M., Grayson, S., Lobodin, V., Ni, C. K., Guo, Z., Mackie, K., Walker, J., Mcewen, C., Inutan, E. & Null, N. E. 2020. New Ionization Processes for Ionizing Nonvolatile Compounds in Mass Spectrometry: The Road of Discovery to Current State-of-the-Art. Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry.

Educational Research Publications

  1. Mathur, A., Cano, A., Kohl, M., Muthunayake, N. S., Vaidyanathan, P., Wood, M. E. & Ziyad, M. 2018. Visualization of gender, race, citizenship and academic performance in association with career outcomes of 15-year biomedical doctoral alumni at a public research university. PLoS One, 13, e0197473.
  2. Mathur, A., Chow, C. S., Feig, A. L., Kenaga, H., Moldenhauer, J. A., Muthunayake, N. S., Ouellett, M. L., Pence, L. E. & Straub, V. 2018. Exposure to multiple career pathways by biomedical doctoral students at a public research university. PLoS One, 13, e0199720

2. International Conference Proceedings

  1. Muthunayake, N. S., Bharmal M., Schrader, J.M. 2019. Determining the role of mRNA secondary structure on non-Shine-Dalgarno translation initiation using DMS-seq. Conference Paper, American Society of Microbiology-Michigan branch, USA.
  1. Muthunayake N. S., Bharmal M., Schrader, J.M. 2019. Determining the role of mRNA secondary structure on non-Shine-Dalgarno translation initiation using DMS-seq. Conference Paper, Chemistry-Biology Interface Symposium, Department of Chemistry, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.
  2. Muthunayake N. S., Dremann, D., Colangelo, W., Cunningham P.R., and Chow, C.S., 2017. In vivo expression of helix 69-binding peptides in bacteria. Conference Paper, Graduate and post-doctoral research symposium Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.
  3. Muthunayake, N.S., Dremann, D., Colangelo, W., Cunningham, P.R., Chow, C.S. 2016. In vivo expression of helix 69-binding peptides in bacteria. Conference Paper, Rusbelt RNA meeting, Cleveland, OH, USA.
  4. Muthunayake, N.S., Dremann, D., Colangelo, W., Cunningham, P.R., and Chow, C.S., In vivo expression of helix 69-binding peptides in bacteria. 2016. Conference Paper, 7th Annual Midwest Graduate Research Symposium, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, USA.
  5. Muthunayake, N.S., Dremann, D., Colangelo, W., Cunningham, P.R., and Chow, C.S., 2016. In vivo expression of helix 69-binding peptides in bacteria. Conference Paper, 251th American Chemical Society National Meeting, Division of Biological Chemistry, Young Investigators Session, San Deigo, CA, USA.
  6. Muthunayake N.S., Danielle Dremann and Christine S. Chow, “Study the inhibitory effects of helix 69-targeting peptides on protein translation in bacteria” Rusbelt RNA meeting, Huron/Sandusky, OH, October 2015.

3. Local Conference Proceedings

  1. Muthunayake, N.S., Dremann, D., Colangelo, W., Cunningham P.R., and Chow, C.S. 2016. In vivo expression of helix 69-binding peptides in bacteria. Conference Paper, International Research Symposium on Pure & Applied Sciences, University of Kelaniya.
  2. Muthunayake, N.S., Weerasooriya, M.K.B. 2009. The use of rice bran lipase to enhance the washing performance of commercial detergents. Proceeding of Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, 2009, 65, 219.