Texas Tech University

Nutritional Sciences

Nutrigenomics, Inflammation and Obesity Research Lab (NIOR)

Nishan Sudheera Kalupahana, MBBS, M.Phil, Ph.D.

Professor and Head, University of Peradeniya, Physiology Department, School of Medicine
Adjunct Professor, Nutritional Sciences, Texas Tech University

Dr. Nishan Sudheera Kalupahana is an Adjunct Professor in the Nutritional Sciences Department at Texas Tech University. He is a Professor in Human Nutrition and the head in the Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. He also functions as a consultant nutritionist to teaching hospitals Peradeniya and Kandy, Sri Lanka. He is the vice-president of the Sri Lanka Medical Nutrition Association. He received his MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery) and MPhil (Master of Philosophy) degrees from the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka and the Ph.D. degree in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA in 2011. He later completed a postdoc in immunology at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
Nishan's research focuses on identifying mechanisms responsible for obesity-associated metabolic derangements, such as Type-2 diabetes with a view of developing preventive and treatment strategies for these conditions. He is specifically interested in ethnic differences in body mass index (BMI)-associated chronic disease risk, obesity and immune function, nutrient-gene interactions, adipose tissue biology, pharmacotherapy for polycystic ovarian disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and lifestyle modification.
He has co-authored 32 peer-reviewed articles in journals including PNAS, Comprehensive Physiology, Obesity Reviews, Molecular Aspects of Medicine, Obesity, Journal of Nutrition and Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry. He has also co-authored 5 book chapters. He has received many research awards including the World Obesity Federation (formerly IASO) International Journal of Obesity New Faculty Award (Basic Science), 2014 and an American Heart Association pre-doctoral fellowship in 2010. He is a member of the American Society for Nutrition, World Obesity Federation and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN). He is an editorial board member of Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry. He also functions as a reviewer for the Medical Research Council, UK and for several journals including Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology, Atherosclerosis, American Journal of Physiology (Endocrinology and Metabolism), Obesity and Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry.

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Nutritional Sciences