Overview
Background
Associate Professor Arutha Kulasinghe leads the Clinical-oMx Lab at the Frazer Institute, University of Queensland and is the Founding Scientific Director of the Queensland Spatial Biology Centre (QSBC) at the Wesley Research Institute. A/Prof Kulasinghe has pioneered spatial transcriptomics, proteomics, and interactomics in the Asia-Pacific region, contributing to world-first studies in lung cancer, head and neck cancer, and tissue atlasing studies of infectious diseases across pandemics. His research aims to understand the underlying pathobiology by using an integrative multi-omics approach. A/Prof Kulasinghe has over 100 peer-reviewed publications, including The Lancet Microbe, Journal of Clinical Oncology and Nature Genetics. He is the recipient of the Cure Cancer "Researcher of the Year" 2023 and named in the "Top Innovators Award" by the Australian for 2024. A/Prof Kulasinghe is supported by the MRFF, NHMRC, US DoD, Cancer Australia, Cure Cancer, pharma and numerous hospital and philanthropic organisations.
Availability
- Associate Professor Arutha Kulasinghe is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy, Queensland University of Technology
Research interests
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Immuno-oncology
Applications in lung, skin, and head and neck cancers.
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Spatial transcriptomics
Applications across solid tumours and COVID-19
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Liquid Biopsies
Applications in lung cancer, and head and neck cancer
Works
Search Professor Arutha Kulasinghe’s works on UQ eSpace
2023
Journal Article
Compartmentalized spatial profiling of the tumor microenvironment in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma identifies immune checkpoint molecules and tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily members as biomarkers of response to immunotherapy
Sadeghirad, Habib, Liu, Ning, Monkman, James, Ma, Ning, Cheikh, Bassem Ben, Jhaveri, Niyati, Tan, Chin Wee, Warkiani, Majid Ebrahimi, Adams, Mark N., Nguyen, Quan, Ladwa, Rahul, Braubach, Oliver, O’Byrne, Ken, Davis, Melissa, Hughes, Brett G. M. and Kulasinghe, Arutha (2023). Compartmentalized spatial profiling of the tumor microenvironment in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma identifies immune checkpoint molecules and tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily members as biomarkers of response to immunotherapy. Frontiers in Immunology, 14 1135489, 1-16. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1135489
2023
Conference Publication
Multiomic dissection of immunotherapy response groups in lung cancer
Kulasinghe, Arutha (2023). Multiomic dissection of immunotherapy response groups in lung cancer. HOBOKEN: WILEY.
2023
Conference Publication
Polo-like kinase-1 is a novel biomarker in resected non-small cell lung cancer treated with adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy
O'Leary, Connor, Monkman, James, Richard, Derek, O'Byrne, Kenneth, Kulasinghe, Arutha and Adams, Mark (2023). Polo-like kinase-1 is a novel biomarker in resected non-small cell lung cancer treated with adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy. Australian Lung Cancer Conference 2023, Gold Coast, QLD Australia, 15-17 February 2023. Richmond, VIC Australia: John Wiley & Sons.
2023
Journal Article
Blood transcriptome responses in patients correlate with severity of COVID-19 disease
Wang, Ya, Schughart, Klaus, Pelaia, Tiana Maria, Chew, Tracy, Kim, Karan, Karvunidis, Thomas, Knippenberg, Ben, Teoh, Sally, Phu, Amy L., Short, Kirsty R., Iredell, Jonathan, Thevarajan, Irani, Audsley, Jennifer, Macdonald, Stephen, Burcham, Jonathon, McLean, Anthony, Tang, Benjamin, Shojaei, Maryam, PREDICT-19 consortium, Kulasinghe, Arutha and Carney, Meagan E. (2023). Blood transcriptome responses in patients correlate with severity of COVID-19 disease. Frontiers in Immunology, 13 1043219, 1-18. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.1043219
2023
Journal Article
IFI27 transcription is an early predictor for COVID-19 outcomes, a multi-cohort observational study
Shojaei, Maryam, Shamshirian, Amir, Monkman, James, Grice, Laura, Tran, Minh, Tan, Chin Wee, Teo, Siok Min, Rodrigues Rossi, Gustavo, McCulloch, Timothy R., Nalos, Marek, Raei, Maedeh, Razavi, Alireza, Ghasemian, Roya, Gheibi, Mobina, Roozbeh, Fatemeh, Sly, Peter D., Spann, Kirsten M., Chew, Keng Yih, Zhu, Yanshan, Xia, Yao, Wells, Timothy J., Senegaglia, Alexandra Cristina, Kuniyoshi, Carmen Lúcia, Franck, Claudio Luciano, dos Santos, Anna Flavia Ribeiro, Noronha, Lucia de, Motamen, Sepideh, Valadan, Reza, Amjadi, Omolbanin ... Tang, Benjamin (2023). IFI27 transcription is an early predictor for COVID-19 outcomes, a multi-cohort observational study. Frontiers in Immunology, 13 1060438, 1-14. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.1060438
2023
Journal Article
Transcriptomic profiling of cardiac tissues from SARS‐CoV ‐2 patients identifies DNA damage
Kulasinghe, Arutha, Liu, Ning, Tan, Chin Wee, Monkman, James, Sinclair, Jane E., Bhuva, Dharmesh D., Godbolt, David, Pan, Liuliu, Nam, Andy, Sadeghirad, Habib, Sato, Kei, Bassi, Gianluigi Li, O'Byrne, Ken, Hartmann, Camila, Miggiolaro, Anna Flavia Ribeiro dos Santos, Marques, Gustavo Lenci, Moura, Lidia Zytynski, Richard, Derek, Adams, Mark, Noronha, Lucia de, Baena, Cristina Pellegrino, Suen, Jacky Y., Arora, Rakesh, Belz, Gabrielle T., Short, Kirsty R., Davis, Melissa J., Souza‐Fonseca Guimaraes, Fernando and Fraser, John F. (2023). Transcriptomic profiling of cardiac tissues from SARS‐CoV ‐2 patients identifies DNA damage. Immunology, 168 (3), 403-419. doi: 10.1111/imm.13577
2022
Conference Publication
Delineation of spatial tissue signatures of immunotherapy response groups in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
Kulasinghe, Arutha, Monkman, James, Kim, Honesty, Mayer, Aaron, Mehdi, Ahmed, Cumberbatch, Marie, Bhagat, Milan, Schneider, Fabian, Thaagard, Jeppe, Mansfield, James, Ladwa, Rahul, Mueller, Scott, Adams, Mark and O’byrne, Kenneth (2022). Delineation of spatial tissue signatures of immunotherapy response groups in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). SITC 37th Annual Meeting (SITC 2022), Boston, MA USA, 8-12 November 2022. London, United Kingdom: BMJ Publishing Group. doi: 10.1136/jitc-2022-sitc2022.0118
2022
Conference Publication
Deep single-cell, proteogenomic insights from SARS-CoV-2 infected lung tissues
Kulasinghe, Arutha, Tan, Chin Wee, Liu, Ning, Monkman, James, Killingbeck, Emily, Kim, Youngmi, Pan, Liuliu, Blick, Tony, Bhuva, Dharmesh, Feher, Kristen, Leon, Michael, Gregory, Mark, Short, Kirsty, Guimaraes, Fernando, Rhodes, Michael, Belz, Gabrielle and Davis, Melissa (2022). Deep single-cell, proteogenomic insights from SARS-CoV-2 infected lung tissues. SITC 37th Annual Meeting (SITC 2022), Boston, MA USA, 8-12 November 2022. London, United Kingdom: BMJ Publishing Group. doi: 10.1136/jitc-2022-sitc2022.0923
2022
Conference Publication
Decoding immunotherapy responses with high-dimensional and high-throughput spatial phenotyping of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
Ma, Ning, Pratapa, Aditya, Monkman, James, O’Byrne, Ken, Braubach, Oliver and Kulasinghe, Arutha (2022). Decoding immunotherapy responses with high-dimensional and high-throughput spatial phenotyping of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). SITC 37th Annual Meeting (SITC 2022), Boston, MA USA, 8-12 November 2022. London, United Kingdom: BMJ Publishing Group. doi: 10.1136/jitc-2022-sitc2022.0120
2022
Conference Publication
High-plex spatial proteomic profiling of immunotherapy response groups in head and neck cancer identifies tissue signatures associated with therapy response
Kulasinghe, Arutha, Sadeghirad, Habib, Liu, Ning, Monkman, James, Tan, Chin Wee, Cooper, Caroline, Church, Sarah, Schneider, Fabian, Thaagard, Jeppe, Mansfield, James, O’byrne, Kenneth, Davis, Melissa and Hughes, Brett (2022). High-plex spatial proteomic profiling of immunotherapy response groups in head and neck cancer identifies tissue signatures associated with therapy response. SITC 37th Annual Meeting (SITC 2022), Boston, MA United States, 8–12 November 2022. London, United Kingdom: BMJ Group. doi: 10.1136/jitc-2022-sitc2022.0117
2022
Conference Publication
High-dimensional spatial phenotyping of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma from immune-competent and immunocompromised patients
Kulasinghe, Arutha, Jhaveri, Niyati, Klymyshyn, Dmytro, Cheikh, Bassem Ben, Ladwa, Rahul, Liu, Howard, Cooper, Caroline, Belz, Gabrielle, Porceddu, Sandro and Braubach, Oliver (2022). High-dimensional spatial phenotyping of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma from immune-competent and immunocompromised patients. SITC 37th Annual Meeting (SITC 2022), Boston, MA United States, 8–12 November 2022. London, United Kingdom: BMJ Group. doi: 10.1136/jitc-2022-sitc2022.0079
2022
Conference Publication
High dimensional immuno-phenotyping of immunotherapy response in head and neck cancer
O'Byrne, K. J., Ma, N., Sadeghirad, H., Jhaveri, N., Monkman, J., Pratapa, A., Cheikh, B. Ben, Ladwa, R., Hughes, B. G. M., Braubach, O. and Kulasinghe, A. (2022). High dimensional immuno-phenotyping of immunotherapy response in head and neck cancer. Annual Meeting of the European-Society-for-Medical-Oncology (ESMO), Electr Network, Sep 09-13, 2022. AMSTERDAM: ELSEVIER. doi: 10.1016/j.annonc.2022.07.778
2022
Conference Publication
High dimensional spatial profiling of the NSCLC tumour microenvironment
Kulasinghe, A., Ma, N., Monkman, J., Pratapa, A., Braubach, O. and O'Byrne, K. (2022). High dimensional spatial profiling of the NSCLC tumour microenvironment. 2022 World Conference on Lung Cancer, Vienna, Austria, 6-9 August 2022. New York, United States: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.jtho.2022.07.1111
2022
Journal Article
Single-cell analysis of circulating tumour cells: enabling technologies and clinical applications
Radfar, Payar, Aboulkheyr Es, Hamidreza, Salomon, Rob, Kulasinghe, Arutha, Ramalingam, Naveen, Sarafraz-Yazdi, Ehsan, Thiery, Jean Paul and Warkiani, Majid Ebrahimi (2022). Single-cell analysis of circulating tumour cells: enabling technologies and clinical applications. Trends in Biotechnology, 40 (9), 1041-1060. doi: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2022.02.004
2022
Journal Article
Immunotherapeutic targets in non‐small cell lung cancer
Sadeghi Rad, Habib, Bahrami, Tayyeb, Layeghi, Sepideh Mehrpour, Yousefi, Hassan, Rezaei, Meysam, Hosseini‐Fard, Seyed Reza, Radfar, Payar, Warkiani, Majid Ebrahimi, O’Byrne, Ken and Kulasinghe, Arutha (2022). Immunotherapeutic targets in non‐small cell lung cancer. Immunology, 168 (2), 1-17. doi: 10.1111/imm.13562
2022
Journal Article
A robust experimental and computational analysis framework at multiple resolutions, modalities and coverages
Tran, M., Yoon, S., Teoh, M., Andersen, S., Lam, PY., Purdue, B. W., Raghubar, A., Hanson, S.J., Devitt, K., Jones, K., Walters, S., Monkman, J., Kulasinghe, A., Tuong, Z.K., Soyer, H.P., Frazer, I. H. and Nguyen, Q. (2022). A robust experimental and computational analysis framework at multiple resolutions, modalities and coverages. Frontiers in Immunology, 13 911873, 911873. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.911873
2022
Conference Publication
Profiling spatial signatures in the microenvironment of non-small cell lung carcinomas in immunotherapy responsive and resistant disease cohorts
Kulasinghe, Arutha, Ma, Ning, Monkman, James, Mammadova, Najiba, Braubach, Oliver and O'Byrne, Ken (2022). Profiling spatial signatures in the microenvironment of non-small cell lung carcinomas in immunotherapy responsive and resistant disease cohorts. AACR Annual Meeting 2022, New Orleans, LA United States, 8-13 April 2022. Philadelphia, PA United States: American Association for Cancer Research. doi: 10.1158/1538-7445.am2022-1714
2022
Conference Publication
Abstract 3817: A single-cell, spatial multiomics atlas and cellular interactome of all major skin cancer types
Grice, Laura, Ni, Guiyan, Jin, Xinnan, Tran, Minh, Killingbeck, Emily, Gregory, Mark, Mulay, Onkar, Teoh, Siok-Min, Kulasinghe, Arutha, Leon, Michael, Murphy, Sarah, Warren, Sarah, Kim, Youngmi and Nguyen, Quan (2022). Abstract 3817: A single-cell, spatial multiomics atlas and cellular interactome of all major skin cancer types. American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, United States, 8-13 April 2022. Philadelphia, PA, United States: American Association for Cancer Research. doi: 10.1158/1538-7445.am2022-3817
2022
Conference Publication
Multi-omic dissection of immunotherapy response groups in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
Kulasinghe, Arutha, Monkman, James, Kim, Honesty, Mayer, Aaron, Mehdi, Ahmed, Matigian, Nicholas, Cumberbatch, Marie, Bhagat, Milan, Ladwa, Rahul, Mueller, Scott, Adams, Mark and O'Byrne, Ken (2022). Multi-omic dissection of immunotherapy response groups in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). AACR Annual Meeting 2022, New Orleans, LA United States, 8-13 April 2022. Philadelphia, PA United States: American Association for Cancer Research. doi: 10.1158/1538-7445.am2022-2036
2022
Conference Publication
Multi-omic and spatial dissection of immunotherapy response groups in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
O'Byrne, Kenneth John, Monkman, James, Kim, Honesty, Cumberbatch, Marie, Bhagat, Milan, Ladwa, Rahul, Adams, Mark N. and Kulasinghe, Arutha (2022). Multi-omic and spatial dissection of immunotherapy response groups in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Annual Meeting of the American-Society-of-Clinical-Oncology (ASCO), Electr Network, Jun 03-07, 2022. PHILADELPHIA: LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS.
Funding
Current funding
Supervision
Availability
- Associate Professor Arutha Kulasinghe is:
- Available for supervision
Looking for a supervisor? Read our advice on how to choose a supervisor.
Supervision history
Current supervision
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Master Philosophy
Defining the head and neck cancer tumour microenvironment across clinical contexts
Principal Advisor
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Doctor Philosophy
Developing predictive biomarkers for immunotherapy using deep spatial profiling
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Brett Hughes
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Master Philosophy
Spatial profiling of the tumour microenvironment in head and neck cancers
Principal Advisor
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Doctor Philosophy
Lessons from a Century of Influenza Pandemics and Implications for Future Preparedness
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Keng Chew, Professor Kirsty Short
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Doctor Philosophy
Understanding the role of myeloid lineages in early melanoma establishment
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor James Wells
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Doctor Philosophy
Deciphering mechanisms of fibroblast-mediated immune regulation in dysplastic cutaneous and oral mucosal epithelium
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Debottam Sinha, Dr Janin Chandra
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Doctor Philosophy
Improved diagnostics for respiratory viral infections
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Meagan Carney, Professor Kirsty Short
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Master Philosophy
Precision medicine for Prostate Cancer Surgery
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor David Pattison, Dr Matthew Roberts
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Doctor Philosophy
Mapping immune dysregulation in complex tissues using single-cell spatial multi-omics
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Dharmesh Bhuva, Associate Professor Fernando Guimaraes
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Doctor Philosophy
Studying the tumour immune microenvironment in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Gabrielle Belz
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Doctor Philosophy
Developing a Translational Pipeline for Personalised Immunotherapy in Follicular Lymphoma
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Maher Gandhi, Dr Joshua Tobin
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Doctor Philosophy
Immuno-genetic biomarkers of response in a prospective study of immune checkpoint therapy in primary CNS lymphoma
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Zachary Hawula, Associate Professor Colm Keane
Completed supervision
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2025
Doctor Philosophy
The investigation of the tumour microenvironment in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma to identify predictive biomarkers of response to immunotherapy
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Quan Nguyen, Associate Professor Brett Hughes
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2025
Doctor Philosophy
Comprehensive characterisation of tumour microenvironment and therapeutic insights into paediatric cancers through multi-omics profiling
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Fernando Guimaraes
Media
Enquiries
Contact Associate Professor Arutha Kulasinghe directly for media enquiries about:
- head and neck cancer
- immuno-oncology
- liquid biopsy
- lung cancer
- skin cancer
- spatial biology
- spatial medicine
- translational cancer research
- tumour microenvironment
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