About me

I have more than 10 years of experience of developing Bioinformatics tools and designing them based on user experiences and HCI design principles. Currently I am working as Senior Data Scientist in Bioinformatics at AstraZeneca, Sweden and contribute to development of drug discovery platform

In 2015, I started PhD in Bioinformatics  under the supervision of Nathaniel Street and John Waterworth and successfully defended thesis titled Human-computer interaction principles for developing web-based genomics resources in 2020. During my PhD studies, I gained practical understanding of biological user behavior and needs, conducting different usability research and importance of participatory design approaches. At the same time, I managed to lead the development of Plant Genome Integrative Explorer (PlantGenIE) platform based on usability research and user experience.  

I started my professional path at University of Colombo, where I received a BSc in Computer Science in 2007. In 2009, after working as a software engineer in several outsourcing companies, I moved to Sweden to began graduate studies. I received MSc in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) at Umeå university in 2011. HCI program helps me to understand the importance of making usable and user-friendly tools. In 2011, I joined as a software designer and programmer at Umeå Plant Science Centre (UPSC) to make web-based bioinformatics tools for researchers in biology. From 2011 till 2015, I worked as a software developer and designer at UPSC where I took the initiative to work with Bioinformatics.  

My main interest is designing usable and user-friendly systems based on micro frontends and microservices architectures while using the cloud services, message broker systems and container-orchestration systems. I am also interested to having one or more users in the design team to capture the real user requirements and use the iterative design cycle throughout the entire agile framework (AFe).

I have been living in Umeå more than a decade. Therefore, I am familiar and enjoying the cultural diversity and excellent atmosphere in Sweden.

I am confident that I can use my theoretical knowledge and practical research experience to improve the usability and user experience (UX) of products and services into the next level.  Here I listed some of the key publications which are based on mainstream research of making usable tools and conducting usability research. 

PhD Thesis:   
Human-computer interaction principles for developing web-based genomics resources  

Few selected publications: 

You can find some more on my Google Scholar profile or Umeå university website.   

PhD graduation ceremony 2022

The Spring Graduation Ceremony conferring jubilee doctors and new doctors and celebrating award recipients was held in 13th of May, 2022. I was graduated as doctor in Bioinformatics and System genetics.

Skills and Experience

10+ years of experience in development of Bioinformatics tools.

BSc in Computer Science, MSc in HCI: UI/UX design and PhD in Bioinformatics.

10+ years experience in academia collaborate with multinational teams.

Build tools from idea to prototype to production, based on mainstream HCI practices.

Design and develop tools based on unique user demands.

Extensive experience in usability methods and design principles.

Report writing, publications and documentation experience

Working in dynamic work environment with diverse social backgrounds

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Experience In Academia &
Bioinformatics
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Scientific Publications &
Bioinformatics Tools

Design and Development

How to build tools, from idea to prototype to production, based on mainstream HCI practices to gain biological insights in large-scale datasets?

HCI principles for developing web-based genomics resources