Chethana Kalalpitiya

• Worked on a project focusing on HSV-1 survival pathway by using apoptotic stimuli (Raptinal, FasL, TNF-α) in U937 and THP-1 cell lines as a precursor to HSV-1 Infection.
• Analyzed cell responses to stimuli using FACS and Western blot to study survival and death pathway markers.
• Contributed to generating preliminary controlled data for HSV-1 infection studies.

Nanodiag_BW Project - Epigenetic Biomarkers and Nanopore Technology for Advanced Diagnostics in Personalized Medicine

• Isolation and purification of Extracellular Vesicles.
• Culturing and maintenance of HT1080 Parental cells for analysis of protein post-translational modifications in EVs derived from HT1080 parental cells.
• Standardization of EV isolation protocol for EVs derived from HT1080 parental cells.

• Processed diverse clinical samples of patients to enable analysis and cancer diagnosis.

• Participated on a project analysing signaling pathways associated with the Estrogen Related Receptor Alpha (ERRα) in Breast Cancer cell lines.
• Maintenance and culturing of breast cancer cell lines, specifically MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-468, and MCF-7.
• Actively participated in practicing molecular laboratory techniques including western blotting, gene silencing, qPCR etc., data collection, analysis and interpretation.