Rochelle Wickramasekara

Rochelle Wickramasekara has held several roles in the life sciences field since 2010. From 2010 to 2012, they were an Undergraduate Research Assistant in the Biology Department and Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Therapeutics at the University of North Dakota. From 2013 to 2017, they were a Graduate Research Assistant at Creighton University, where they characterized a novel DBA/2J x C3H/HeJ recombinant inbred mouse model, as well as performed behavioral paradigms, intraperitoneal drug injections/brain dissections, qRT-PCR, immunohistochemistry, confocal microscopy, brain morphological analysis, western blotting, ELISAs, microarray and RNA sequencing gene expression analysis. From 2017 to 2021, they were a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Creighton University, where they determined the functional significance of a highly pathogenic autism spectrum disorder risk gene, KMT5B, using animal (mouse and zebrafish) and cell culture model systems. Since 2021, they have been a Senior Research Associate at Boys Town National Research Hospital, where they have developed effective methods for non-invasive prenatal testing using cell-free DNA and initiated an active collaboration between the Molecular Diagnostics Research Lab and Autism Clinic at Boys Town National Research Hospital. Rochelle has also proposed projects to develop a DNA sequencing-based targeted genetic testing panel to be used in-house at BTNRH, as well as to determine micro-RNA expression profiles in kids diagnosed with Autism to identify biomarkers of the disease. Rochelle is currently employed at RayBiotech Life, Inc. as a Life Science Technical Support and Marketing Specialist.

Rochelle Wickramasekara obtained a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Biomedical Sciences and Neuroscience from Creighton University, Department of Biomedical Sciences in 2017. Prior to that, they earned a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Biology, General from the University of North Dakota in 2013. Rochelle also holds a High School Diploma from Gateway College Sri Lanka, which they obtained in 2009. Her education began in 1993 at St. Bridget's Convent, Colombo 07.