Hasitha Premathilake

About Hasitha Premathilake

An accomplished scientist with 6+ years’ experience in utilizing molecular biology and…

Experience

1. Biological Scientist - Automated Cell Culture Expert Group (Card)

   National Institute On Aging Nia

   Oct 2024 — Present · Bethesda, MD, US

   Bring greater optimization, reliability, and reproducibility to the culture, maintenance, and differentiation of hiPSCs using a high-throughput automated cell culture system based on Hamilton Microlab VANTAGE automated multimodal reagent dispenser platform, thus producing efficient and reproducible workflows.Simultaneous cultivation of multiple cell lines that can be differentiated into different cell types (neurons, microglia and astrocytes) for downstream assays, through automated hiPSC introduction, single-cell dissociation, transfection, and long term differentiation into neurons, microglia and astrocytes (roughly 28 days).Serving as the back born of the iPSC Neurodegenerative Disease Initiative (iNDI) at the Center for Alzheimer\'s and Related Dementia (NIA/NIH), responsible for the high-throughput automated expansion and differentiation of a multitude of iNDI cell lines (containing ADRD related mutations) for downstream high-throughput genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic analysis.Championing the implementation of laboratory best practices for reduced contamination and operational cost in a fully automated state-of-the-art laboratory environment.

Education

• University of Colombo

  Bachelor's degree, Bioinformatics

  2007 — 2011

• Oklahoma State University

  Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Animal Sciences

  2017 — 2021

• Nalanda College, Colombo.

  Biological Science

  1997 — 2005

• Cardiff Metropolitan University

  Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.), General MBA

  2013 — 2014

• University of South Dakota

  Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Bioinformatics (reading)

  2016 — 2017

• SLIIT

  Bsc. Special Honours, Information Technology

  2006 — 2010