Amitha Hewavitharana

Research Interests

Please refer to the complete list of publications, in the link below, to get an idea of Dr Hewavitharana's research focus: https://akhcv.wordpress.com Stemming from PhD in analytical chemistry, Dr Hewavitharana's research is focused on solving fundamental analytical problems as well as developing analytical methods for a variety of applications such as: metal speciation (free/ionized calcium, and magnesium) and metabolite analysis (eg. pseudouridine, paracetamols, endorphins, dynorphins) in biological fluids, water and waste water, nutrients (eg. vitamins), antinutrients (eg. lysiniolanine) and antioxidants (eg. carotenes, tocopherols, tocotrienols) in dairy foods and meat products, nutraceuticals in tropical fruits (eg. carotenes, quercetins, mangiferin, anticancer compounds) psychoactive compunds (THC), marker compounds such as isoprostanes, sinistrin, fluconazole, pindolol, p-amino hippuric acid and creatinine, drug discovery (antibiotics and anti-cancer compounds from marine sponge bacteria and tropical fruit), drug delivery (dendrimers) and drug assay (BAY-11-7082, paracetamol, endorphin), Disease markers (eg. Sarcosine in prostate cancer), Fat and Water soluble analogues of vitamin D, Trace metals in food, Ion suppression effects in mass spectrometry, Challenges in method validation. Over the past 31 years, her research outcomes were achieved using a wide variety of instrumentation such as, HPLC -MS-MS, -PDA, -fluorescence, -EC etc, IC, GC-MS, HPCE, AAS, NIR, FTIR, FIA. Her interests also include method validation and laboratory quality assurance in line with ISO 17025. She provides her expertise as a technical assessor to NATA and IANZ, in ISO accreditation of food and water laboratories in Australia and New Zealand.