Associate Professor Arutha Kulasinghe
About
Associate Professor Arutha Kulasinghe leads the Clinical-oMx Lab at the Frazer Institute, University of Queensland and is the Founding Scientific Director of the Queensland Spatial Biology Centre (QSBC) at the Wesley Research Institute. A/Prof Kulasinghe has pioneered spatial transcriptomics, proteomics, and interactomics in the Asia-Pacific region, contributing to world-first studies in lung cancer, head and neck cancer, and tissue atlasing studies of infectious diseases across pandemics. His research aims to understand the underlying pathobiology by using an integrative multi-omics approach. A/Prof Kulasinghe is supported by the Wesley Research Institute, MRFF, NHMRC, US DoD, Cancer Australia, Cure Cancer and numerous hospital and philanthropic organisations.
Qualifications
Bsc (Hons) Medical Microbiology (Medical Microbiology), Education – University of Pretoria, 2012
PhD (School of Biomedical Sciences), Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation- Queensland University of Tehcnology, 2017
Featured Publications
Cheikh BB, Donovan M, Monkman J, Kulasinghe A. 1081 Celtix: an end-to-end spatial analysis platform for high-multiplex immunofluorescence with application to head and neck cancer. Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer. 2025;13:. https://doi.org/10.1136/jitc-2025-SITC2025.1081
Lu, X., Tan, X., Kim, E.J. et al. Cell–cell interactions as predictive and prognostic markers for drug responses in cancer. Genome Med 17, 117 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13073-025-01518-5
Naomi Berrell, Aaron Kilgallon, Meg L. Donovan, Clara Lawler, Chin Wee Tan, Kidane S. Embaye, Rafael Tubelleza, James Monkman, John F. Fraser, Ken O’Byrne, Ruby Huang, Arutha Kulasinghe, Proximity and metabolic activity proxies in the Tumour Microenvironment as predictors of survival in High Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer (HGSOC), iScience, 2025, 113572, ISSN 2589-0042, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2025.113572
Rafael Tubelleza, Aaron Kilgallon, Chin Wee Tan, James Monkman, John Fraser, Arutha Kulasinghe, PRISM: A Python Package for Interactive and Integrated Analysis of Multiplexed Tissue Microarrays, bioRxiv 2024.12.23.630034; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.12.23.630034
CW Tan, N Berrell, ML Donovan, J Monkman, C Lawler, H Sadeghirad, V Yaghoubi Naei, J Chen, A Rossenbloom, S Bonnett, M Conner, B Filanoski, C Kang, JM Beechem, C Barnett, R Ladwa, BGM Hughes, A Kulasinghe. The development of a high-plex spatial proteomic methodology for the characterisation of the head and neck tumour microenvironment. npj Precis. Onc. 9, 191 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41698-025-00963-0
Naei VY, Tubelleza R, Monkman J, Sadeghirad H, Donovan ML, Blick T, Wicher A, Bodbin S, Viratham A, Stad R, Basu S, Cooper C, Barnett C, O’Byrne K, Ladwa R, Warkiani ME, Hughes BGM, Kulasinghe A. (2025). Spatial interaction mapping of PD-1/PD-L1 in head and neck cancer reveals the role of macrophage-tumour barriers associated with immunotherapy response. J Transl Med. 12;23(1):177. doi: 10.1186/s12967-025-06186-y.
Kulasinghe, A., Berrell, N., Donovan, M.L., Nilges, B.S. (2025). Spatial-Omics Methods and Applications. In: Raghavachari, N., Garcia-Reyero, N. (eds) Gene Expression Analysis. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2880. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-4276-4_5
ML Donovan, N Jhaveri, N Ma, BB Cheikh, J DeRosa, R Mihani, N Berrell, JY Suen, J Monkman, JF Fraser, A Kulasinghe. (2024). Protocol for high-plex, whole-slide imaging of human formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue using PhenoCycler-Fusion. Cell Press STAR Protocols. doi: 10.1016/j.xpro.2024.103226
N Berrell, J Monkman, ML Donovan, T Blick, K O’Byrne, R Ladwa, CW Tan, A Kulasinghe. (2024). Spatially resolving the tumour microenvironment of head and neck cancer to discover novel predictive biomarkers of immunotherapy response. Immunology & Cell Biology. doi: 10.1111/imcb.12811
H Sadeghirad, J Monkman, N Liu, CW Tan, ML Donovan, A Moradi, J Yunis, C Perry, M Adams, K O’Byrne, M E. Warkiani, R Ladwa, B Hughes, A Kulasinghe. (2024). Transcriptomic and proteomic spatial profiling of tertiary lymphoid aggregates in head and neck cancer reveal spatial tissue dynamics and profiles associated with immunotherapy response. Journal of Translational Medicine. doi: 10.1186/s12967-024-05409-y
Affiliations
Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow (2025-)
Senior Research Fellow and Group Leader (2021-2024),
Peter Doherty NHMRC Research Fellow (2019-2022)
Frazer Institute, The University of Queensland (UQ)
Honorary Research Fellow (2020-), Institute for Molecular Biosciences (IMB), University of Queensland (UQ)
Adjunct Senior Research Fellow (2020-), Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
Professional Memberships
2013- Australian Society for Medical Research (ASMR) member
2014- Australia Metastasis Research Society (OzMRS) member
2016 Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI) Postgraduate Committee
2016- American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Associate Member
2017 Australian Society for Medical Research (ASMR) QLD Public Outreach Chair
2019- American Association for Cancer Research – American Head and Neck Society
2019- Brisbane Life Science EMCR Symposium (BLISS) Steering Committee
2019- QUT School of Biomedical Sciences EMCR Steering Committee (founding member)
2019- Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC)
2019- International Association for the study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) member
2020- Australian and New Zealand Society for Immunology (ASI) member
2020- EMBL member
2021- Human Cell Atlas Project Collaborating Member
2021- International Liquid biopsy Society
2023- European Spatial Biology Centre, Scientific Advisory Board
2023- California Spatial Biology Centre, Scientific Advisory Board
2025- Human Cell Atlas (working group for disease atlases)
2025- Human Cell Atlas (working group for technology developments)
Awards
2014 Translational Research Institute Symposium: 1st prize poster
2014 Inaugural New Collaborative Team Award (Translational Research Institute)
2015 PAH Health Symposium: 1st prize poster
2015 3 Minute Thesis; QUT IHBI Finalist
2015 Thomas Ashworth CTC Conference (Melbourne): 1st place Oral ECR/PhD Category
2016 Agilent Young Scientist Forum: Finalist.
2016 Australian Society for Medical Research (ASMR) 2016: Runner-up poster prize.
2016 Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital Healthcare symposium: 3 min of fame co-winner
2017 Translational Research Institute: Student Researcher Oral Finalist
2017 Princess Alexandra Hospital Research Excellence Award: Researcher of the Year
2017 Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI) Inspires: Poster Prize
2017 PhD conferral (nominated for outstanding thesis award)
2017 IHBI – Carla Patterson Publication Award
2018 Princess Alexandra Hospital Health Symposium Research Excellence Award Finalist
2018 Peter Doherty NHMRC Early Career Fellowship (accepted)
2018 Advanced Queensland Early Career Fellowship (relinquished)
2019 Brisbane Lord Mayor’s Trail Blazer award
2019 American Association for Cancer Research-American Head and Neck Society: scholar in training
2019 Advances in Circulating Tumor Cell meeting (ACTC 2019) ECR Travel Award
2019 IHBI – Carla Patterson Publication Award (ECR category)
2020 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Scholar in training award
2020 Ausbiotech, J&J Innovation Dual COVID-19 Collaborative and Industry Choice Awards
2020 International Head and Neck Cancer ECR Award (Frontiers in Oncology)
2021 Princess Alexandra Hospital Health Symposium: ECR Researcher of the Year
2022 The University of Queensland, Faculty of Medicine, “Collaborators of the Year”
2022 Thoracic Oncology Group Australia TOGA 1st prize Oral presentation
2022 Frazer Institute, “Publication of the Year” – Cardiac COVID-19 paper
2022 Frazer Institute, “Collaboration of the Year” – Cardiac COVID-19 team
2023 Cure Cancer Researcher of the Year
2023 Frazer Institute, “Director’s Award for Outstanding Contribution
2024 “Top 100 Innovators List” by the Australian Magazine
2025 NHMRC Research Excellence “Science to Art” Award
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