Senior Lecturer and Clinical Geneticist, Department of Anatomy/Human Genetics Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka

Dr. Nirmala D. Sirisena’s special interests are Clinical Genetics, Cancer Genetics and Genomics, Genomic Medicine and Genomic Education. She provides clinical care and genetic counselling services at the Human Genetics Unit. She is also involved in teaching clinical genetics and genomics to both undergraduate and postgraduate students in the Faculty and co-ordinating research work related to both clinical genetics and cancer genomics.

She spearheads the cancer genetics program in the Unit and has been involved in integrating next generation sequencing based cancer gene panel testing to the repertoire of services offered through the clinic. She is also the Departmental coordinator overseeing the international electives program which provides short-term training for overseas undergraduate medical students in the areas of anatomy, histology, embryology, genetics and genomics. She has published over 50 papers in international, peer-reviewed scientific journals, 4 book chapters and presented the findings of research work carried out in various aspects of cancer genetics and genomics at national and international scientific fora, which have won several awards.

Her current research work involves characterizing the molecular genetic determinants of breast cancer in Sri Lankan women. She is also actively involved in promoting genomic medicine training programs for healthcare workers in the country. She is the founding President of the Human Genetics Society and a Steering Committee member of the G2MC initiative.