About the Speaker:

Bio:

Education and Training:

B.S., Chemistry, University of Colombo, 2009

PhD, Inorganic Chemistry, University of Kansas, 2015

Post-Doctoral Associate, Johns Hopkins University, 2015-2018

Research Interests:

The Wijeratne Research Group designs and generates bioinspired synthetic model complexes of heme enzymes that activate small molecules/ions. They investigate enzymatic systems (structure-function relationships, mechanism, thermodynamic and kinetic properties etc.), which can be powerful mechanistic probes for some of the most understudied heme enzymes, especially those that are emerging drug targets against a variety of neurodegenerative and autoimmune conditions, as well as cancers.