Rate My Professor Sujeevi Nawaratna

Dr. Sujeevi Nawaratna is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Medicine and Dentistry, Griffith Health Group, at Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus. She holds an M.B.B.S., M.Phil., Ph.D., and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (F.H.E.A., U.K.). In her academic role, she serves as Phase 1 Lead in the Doctor of Medicine (MD) program and as first-year course convenor, overseeing clinical anatomy practical examinations and contributing to curriculum development. She supervises postgraduate students, including a current Master's project titled 'Bridging the Gap: Improving PCOS Diagnosis in Primary Care through Health Promotion Strategies for General Practitioners.' Her teaching emphasizes practical skills in medical education, as evidenced by her work on fine-tuning standard settings for objective structured practical examinations (OSPEs) in clinical anatomy.

Nawaratna's research interests center on molecular parasitology, particularly schistosomiasis and helminth parasites, alongside liver biology, hepatic inflammation, fibrosis, granuloma regression, and inflammasome signaling. Previously associated with QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Eskitis Institute for Drug Discovery, and the University of Queensland's School of Veterinary Science, she has advanced understandings of parasite proteomes, vaccine targets, and drug mechanisms. Notable publications include 'The heavy subunit of ferritin stimulates NLRP3 inflammasomes in hepatic stellate cells through ICAM-1 to drive hepatic inflammation' (2024, Science Signaling); 'Fine-tuning the standard setting of objective structured practical examinations in clinical anatomy' (2023, Anatomical Sciences Education); 'Adult schistosomes have an epithelial bacterial population distinct from the surrounding mammalian host blood' (2022, Journal of Proteome Research); 'Use of Kinase Inhibitors against Schistosomes to Improve and Broaden Praziquantel Efficacy' (2020, Parasitology); 'Murine Precision-Cut Liver Slices as an Ex Vivo Model of Liver Biology' (2020, Cells); 'Suppression of Schistosoma japonicum Acetylcholinesterase Significantly Affects Parasite Infection Intensity and Egg Production in a Mouse Model' (2018, Pathogens); and 'Lysosome-associated membrane glycoprotein (LAMP) – preliminary study on a hidden antigen target for vaccination against schistosomiasis' (2015, Scientific Reports). With 57 publications and over 1,300 citations, her contributions influence parasitic disease control and liver pathology research. She maintains an ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8716-2296.