Rate My Professor Jithendra Ratnayake

Dr Jithendra Ratnayake serves as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Oral Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, at the University of Otago. He holds a BEng(Hons) from the University of Sheffield and a PhD in Anatomy from the University of Otago, obtained between 2014 and 2017. Prior to his academic career in New Zealand, he served in the British and Sri Lankan military. He also maintains an adjunct Senior Lecturer position at the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University in Sri Lanka. His primary research focus is biomaterials and tissue engineering, specifically the development of novel biomaterials from sustainable waste by-products of New Zealand's red meat export industry. These include bovine and ovine bone-derived materials transformed into high-performance products for bone regeneration, wound dressings, cleft lip/palate repair, orthopedic applications, and dental restorations. He has extensive expertise in physicochemical characterisation using analytical techniques and biocompatibility assessment through in vitro and in vivo methods.

Ratnayake's secondary research interests encompass endodontic materials for pulp capping, pulp biology, restorative dental materials, and dental education innovations. Current projects involve novel bone grafts from bovine and ovine bone, bio-composite materials, bovine-derived nanohydroxyapatite toothpaste for caries management, hybrid composites from natural Montmorillonite clay and waste bovine bone, and triple-functionalised multilayer coatings on porous CFR-PEEK implants. Key publications include 'Magnesium and copper co-substituted bovine bone-derived hydroxyapatite: A sustainable and functional coating for CFR-PEEK implants' (Qiu et al., Colloids & Surfaces A, 2026), 'Keratin 3D printing: Sustainable biomaterials for regenerative medicine and biomanufacturing' (Rajabi et al., Tissue Engineering Part A, 2025), 'Differential expressions of inflammatory, dentinogenic, regulatory, proliferative and stemness genes in non-carious and carious human dental pulp tissues: An ex vivo proof-of-concept study' (Arora et al., International Endodontic Journal, 2026), and 'Silicate-substituted bovine-derived hydroxyapatite as a bone substitute in regenerative dentistry' (Journal of Applied Biomaterials & Functional Materials, 2025). He collaborates commercially with Colgate Palmolive Ltd, ANZCO Foods, and Intuitive 8 Healthcare LLC, as well as universities in the UK, Australia, Saudi Arabia, China, Sri Lanka, and the USA.