Dr. WDSS Pemasinghe

Senior Lecturer, 
Department of Food Science & Technology
Faculty of Livestock Fisheries & Nutrition
Wayamba University of Sri Lanka,
Makandura, Gonawila (NWP)

Office: +94 3122 99871
Mobile: 
Email:  sajeewa@wyb.ac.lk
Google Scholar  |  Researchgate   

Dr. W.D.S.S. Pemasinghe was recruited to the Department of Food Science and Technology of the Faculty of Livestock, Fisheries and Nutrition with effect from 3rd of April 2019. He obtained his BSc Hons Degree in Chemistry from the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka in 2009. He received his PhD in Chemistry from Wayne State University, Michigan, USA in 2015. His academic and research career commenced in 2009 as a demonstrator in the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya. Subsequently he worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Wayne State University during the period from 2010 to 2015. He has worked as a lecturer at Uva Wellassa University and as a visiting lecturer at the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka. From 2016 to 2018 he worked as a Postdoctoral Associate at the New York University – Abu Dhabi branch. After coming back to Sri Lanka he worked as a Senior Consultant at National Institute for Business Management (NIBM) until being recruited to the Wayamba University of Sri Lanka. His research interests are computational design of enzyme inhibitors, application of artificial intelligence techniques in food science, and application of bioinformatics techniques in food science.

  1. American Chemical Society
  2. Phi Lambda Upsilon (PLU) Honor Society
  3. Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science
  • Computational design of enzyme inhibitors
  • Application of artificial intelligence techniques in food science
  • Application of bioinformatics techniques in food science
  • President’s Award for Scientific Publications – 2016
  • Dan Trivich Memorial Award for Research in Chemistry, Wayne State University, USA, 2015
  • Paul and Carol C. Schaap Endowed Distinguished Graduate Student Fellowship, Wayne State University, USA, 2012-2013
  • Amit Srivastava, Seung Heo, Sajeewa W Dewage, Serdal Kirmizialtin, Xingyun Qiu, R. T. (2020) Structure-guided DNA–DNA attraction mediated by divalent cations. Nucleic Acids Res.
  • Srivastava, A., Timsina, R., Dewage, S. W., Qiu, X., and Kirmizialtin, S. (2019) Sequence Effects on Mg+2 Ion Mediated DNA – DNA Interactions. Biophys. J. 116, 360a.
  • Srivastiva, A., Timsina, R., Dewage, S. W., Qiu, X., and Kirmizialtin, S. (2019) Sequence encoded DNA-DNA Interactions, in EUROPEAN BIOPHYSICS JOURNAL WITH BIOPHYSICS LETTERS, pp S91–S91. SPRINGER 233 SPRING ST, NEW YORK, NY 10013 USA.
  • Shetty, D., Skorjanc, T., Raya, J., Sharma, S. K., Jahovic, I., Polychronopoulou, K., Asfari, Z., Han, D. S., Dewage, S., Olsen, J.-C., Jagannathan, R., Kirmizialtin, S., and Trabolsi, A. (2018) Calix[4]arene-Based Porous Organic Nanosheets. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 10, 17359–17365.
  • Zhao, L., Rathnayake, U. M., Dewage, S. W., Wood, W. N., Veltri, A. J., Cisneros, G. A., and Hendrickson, T. L. (2016) Characterization of tunnel mutants reveals a catalytic step in ammonia delivery by an aminoacyl-tRNA amidotransferase. FEBS Lett. 590, 3122–3132.
  • Pratt, A. C., Dewage, S. W., Pang, A. H., Biswas, T., Barnard-Britson, S., Cisneros, G. A., and Tsodikov, O. V. (2015) Structural and computational dissection of the catalytic mechanism of the inorganic pyrophosphatase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. J. Struct. Biol. 192, 76–87.
  • Bonomi, R., Mukhopadhyay, U., Shavrin, A., Yeh, H.-H., Majhi, A., Dewage, S. W., Najjar, A., Lu, X., Cisneros, G. A., Tong, W. P., Alauddin, M. M., Liu, R.-S., Mangner, T. J., Turkman, N., and Gelovani, J. G. (2015) Novel Histone Deacetylase Class IIa Selective Substrate Radiotracers for PET Imaging of Epigenetic Regulation in the Brain. PLoS One 10, e0133512.
  • Dewage, S. W., and Cisneros, G. A. (2015) Computational Analysis of Ammonia Transfer Along Two Intramolecular Tunnels in Staphylococcus aureus Glutamine-Dependent Amidotransferase (GatCAB). J. Phys. Chem. B 119, 3669–3677.
  • Zhao, L., Dewage, S. W., Bell, M. J., Chang, K.-M., Fatma, S., Joshi, N., Silva, G., Cisneros, G. A., and Hendrickson, T. L. (2012) The Kinase Activity of the Helicobacter pylori Asp-tRNAAsn/Glu-tRNAGln Amidotransferase Is Sensitive to Distal Mutations in Its Putative Ammonia Tunnel. Biochemistry 51, 273–285.
  • Zhao, L., Dewage, S. W., Bell, M. J., Chang, K.-M., Fatma, S., Joshi, N., Silva, G., Cisneros, A., and Hendrickson, T. L. (2012) Computational study of the possible coupling between subunits of the enzyme glutamine-dependent amidotransferase (GatCAB), in ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. AMER CHEMICAL SOC 1155 16TH ST, NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20036 USA.

    Teaching Themes

    • Chemistry
    • Scientific computing
    • Bioinformatics
    • Machine learning

    Academic & Professional Appointments

    • Senior Lecturer, Department of Food Science and Technology 2019 to date
    • Senior Consultant/Lecturer, National Institute of Business Management (NIBM) Dec 2018 to Apr 2019
    • Postdoctoral Associate, New York University Abu Dhabi, Nov 2016 to Dec 2018
    • Visiting Lecturer, Sabaragamuwa University, Nov 2015 to Oct 2016
    • Lecturer, Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, Oct 2015 to Oct 2016
    • Chemist, Bureau Veritas Consumer Products Services, Jun 2015 to Sep 2015
    • Graduate Teaching Assistant, Wayne State University, Aug 2010 to May 2015
    • Teaching Assistant in Chemistry, University of Kelaniya, Nov 2009 to Jun 2010