Shyaman Jayasundara

PhD Student (Computer Science) | B.Sc. Eng (Hons) | Ex: Merck

E-mail contact@shyaman.me

I'm a passionate data science enthusiast with a keen interest in bioinformatics and computational biology. Beyond the world of data, I find joy in exploring new places and capturing precious moments with my loved ones.

Experience 

Computational Biology Co-op

Merck, South San Francisco, California, USA
Jun 2025 - Dec 2025

Research Assistant

Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
Supervisor: Prof. Majid Kazemian
Aug 2022 - Now

Research Assistant (Full-time)

Agricultural Biotechnology Centre, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
Supervisor: Professor Pradeepa Bandaranayake
Aug 2020 - April 2022

Research Assistant (Part-time)

Department of Computer Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
Supervisor: Dr. Damayanthi Herath
Oct 2021 - Dec 2021

Research Volunteer (Full-time)

Agricultural Biotechnology Centre, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
Supervisor: Professor Pradeepa Bandaranayake
Dec 2019 - Jan 2020

Research Assistant (Internship)

Montana State University, USA
Supervisor: Assistant Professor Indika Kahanda
Feb 2019 - July 2019

Education 

Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA

Ph.D. in Computer Science
Aug 2022 - Now

University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

B.Sc in Engineering (Honours)
Specialized in Computer Engineering
First Class (GPA: 3.90 / 4.00)
Nov 2015 - July 2020

St. Anne's College, Kurunegala, Sri Lanka

G.C.E. Advanced Level / G.C.E. Ordinary Level
Jan 2006 - Dec 2014

Publications 

* denotes equal contribution

  • Canonical microRNA loss drives tumor development, implicating therapeutic efficacy of enoxacin in angiosarcoma.

    Liu, B., Murphy, A., Benton, A., Gartenhaus, L., Budka, W., Bronzini, J. M., Hartzler, S., Yates, M.E., Alzate, A.R., Janson, N.D., Jayasundara, S., ... & Hanna, J. A.

    RNA, 32(6), 812-826, 2026

    doi: 10.1261/rna.080706.125

  • YAP1:: TFE3 mediates endothelial‐to‐mesenchymal plasticity in epithelioid hemangioendothelioma

    Murphy, A., Hartzler, S., Vargas Carranza, P. A.,Jayasundara, S., Yates, M. E., Janson, N. D., ... & Hanna, J. A.

    Molecular Oncology, 20(2), 493-510, 2026

    doi: 10.1002/1878-0261.70112

  • Inflammation impacts androgen receptor signaling in basal prostate stem cells through interleukin 1 receptor antagonist

    Cooper, P.O., Yang, J., Wang, H.H., Broman, M.M., Jayasundara, S.M., Sahoo, S.S., Yan, B., Awdalkreem, G.D., Cresswell, G.M., Wang, L. and Goossens, E.

    Communications Biology, 7(1), p.1390, 2024

    doi: 10.1038/s42003-024-07071-y

  • Chloroplast genome, nuclear ITS regions, mitogenome regions, and Skmer analysis resolved the genetic relationship among Cinnamomum species in Sri Lanka

    Bandaranayake, P.C., Naranpanawa, N., Chandrasekara, C.B., Samarakoon, H., Lokuge, S., Jayasundara, S., Bandaranayake, A.U., Pushpakumara, D.K.N.G. and Wijesundara, D.S.A.

    Plos one, 18(9), e0291763, 2023

    doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0291763

  • A unique single nucleotide polymorphism in Agouti Signalling Protein (ASIP) gene changes coat colour of Sri Lankan leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya) to dark black

    Sooriyabandara, M. G. C.*, A. U. Bandaranayake*, H. A. B. M. Hathurusinghe*, S. M. Jayasundara*, M. S. R. R. P. Marasinghe, G. A. T. Prasad, V. P. M. K. Abeywardana, M. A. Pinidiya, R. M. R. Nilanthi, and P. C. G. Bandaranayake

    Plos one, 18(7), e0269967, 2023

    doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0269967

  • Genetic features of Sri Lankan elephant, Elephas maximus maximus Linnaeus revealed by high throughput sequencing of mitogenome and ddRAD-seq

    Sooriyabandara, M. G. C.*, J. M. S. M. Jayasundara*, M. S. L. R. P. Marasinghe*, H. A. B. M. Hathurusinghe*, A. U. Bandaranayake, K. A. N. C. Jayawardane, R. M. R. Nilanthi, R. C. Rajapakse, and P. C. G. Bandaranayake

    Plos one, 18(6), e0285572, 2023

    doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0285572

  • Interpretable Student Performance Prediction Using Explainable Boosting Machine for Multi-Class Classification

    S. Jayasundara*, A. Indika* and D. Herath

    2022 2nd International Conference on Advanced Research in Computing (ICARC), 2022, pp. 391-396

    doi: 10.1109/ICARC54489.2022.9753867

  • miRNAFinder: A comprehensive web resource for plant pre-microRNA classification

    S. Lokuge*, S. Jayasundara*, P. Ihalagedara*, I. Kahanda, and D. Herath

    Biosystems, vol. 215–216, no. February, p. 104662, 2022

    doi: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2022.104662

  • Machine learning for plant microRNA prediction: A systematic review

    S. Jayasundara*, S. Lokuge*, P. Ihalagedara*, and D. Herath

    arXiv, Jun. 2021

    arxiv.org

  • miRNAFinder: A pre-microRNA classifier for plants and analysis of feature impact

    P. Ihalagedara*, S. Lokuge*, S. Jayasundara*, D. Herath and I. Kahanda

    2020 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (CIBCB), Viña del Mar, 2020, pp. 1-7

    doi: 10.1109/CIBCB48159.2020.9277723

  • miRNAFinder: An accurate plant pre-microRNAclassifier with an analysis of feature impact

    S. Lokuge*, S. Jayasundara*, P. Ihalagedara* and D. Herath

    Engineering Students Conference at Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, 2020

    aces.ce.pdn.ac.lk

  • RDoCer: Information Retrieval and Sentence Extraction for Mental Health using Research Domain Criteria

    D. Laden*, S. Jayasundara* and I. Kahanda

    2020 IEEE 14th International Conference on Semantic Computing (ICSC), San Diego, CA, USA, 2020, pp. 226-229

    doi: 10.1109/ICSC.2020.00047