Nalin Abeydeera Kekiriwara Godage, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar
Medicine
School of Medicine

Dr. Abeydeera is a bioorganic chemist and biomedical engineer with research interests in drug discovery and development for infectious diseases, cancers, and inflammatory diseases. He aims to identify novel drug targets to combat antimicrobial resistance, overcome the development of drug resistance in ovarian cancer, and mitigate exaggerated airway narrowing in chronic airway diseases.

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His scientific approach integrates chemistry, microbiology, and immunology to address urgent clinical needs. He employs medicinal chemistry alongside in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo disease models, including transgenic mouse models and advanced microscopy techniques, to map force-transmission pathways at the cellular level.

Awards

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• Taylor Graduate Research Award, Kent State University, United States, 2022
• Domestic Travel Award, Graduate Student Senate, Kent State University, United States, 2019

Education & Training

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• Ph.D. Chemistry and Biochemistry Kent State University 2022
• B.Sc (Special) Chemistry University of Sri Jayewardenepura 2015
• Postdoctoral Scholar Chemical Biology and Cell Biology University of California, San Francisco

Interests

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• Asthama and COPD
• Anticancer agents
• Medicinal Chemistry
• Autophagy
• Antimicrobial resistance

Websites

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• Linkedin (linkedin.com)
• Google Scholar (scholar.google.com)

Grants and Projects

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• Mechanisms of Cytokine-Mediated Integrin Activation and Force Transmission in Airway Smooth Muscle, NIH, 2024-2029
• Non-invasive magnetic nanothermotherapy for resolution of wound biofilm infection, NIH, 2015-2020

Publications (17)

Top publication keywords:
Drug Resistance, BacterialMycobacterium tuberculosisQuantitative Trait LociDendritic CellsPseudomonas aeruginosaChlorquinaldolTuberculosisStaphylococcus aureusGalliumAnti-Bacterial AgentsAnti-Infective AgentsCoordination ComplexesMolecular StructureMetal NanoparticlesBiofilms

• Iron(III)-Tropolone Complex as a Topical Agent Against Drug-Resistant MRSA Skin Infections.
  Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) 2026 Abeydeera N, Chen G, Zarea K, Pant BD, Benin BM, Ratnayake KM, Kim MH, Shin WS, Huang SD
• Ligand lipophilicity-guided design of a Ga(III) complex with dual antiplanktonic and antibiofilm activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
  European journal of medicinal chemistry 2026 Chen G, Zarea KI, Abeydeera N, Farhana F, Jogadi W, Krause JA, Huang SD
• Synthesis and characterization of Pt (II) complexes of a pyridyl-s-triazine ligand as potential anticancer and antimycobacterial drug leads
  2025 Lashan Edirisinghe, Praneeth Ratnayake, Nalin Abeydeera, Jonathan M Budzik, Senuri Jayawardana Arachchige, Inoka C Perera, Frank R Fronczek, Theshini Perera
• Mycobacterium tuberculosis triggers reduced inflammatory cytokine responses and virulence in mice lacking Tax1bp1.
  PLoS pathogens 2025 Chin J, Abeydeera N, Repasy T, Rivera-Lugo R, Mitchell G, Nguyen VQ, Zheng W, Richards A, Stevenson E, Swaney DL, Krogan NJ, Ernst JD, Cox JS, Budzik JM
• Recent Development of Exploring Ferroptosis-Inspired Effect of Iron as a Feasible Strategy for Combating Multidrug Resistant Bacterial Infections
  Recent Development of Exploring Ferroptosis-Inspired Effect of Iron as a Feasible Strategy for Combating Multidrug Resistant Bacterial Infections 2025 Nalin Abeydeera

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• Synthesis, structural characterization, and antimicrobial activity of Zn(cloxyquin)2: towards harnessing zinc intoxication and immune response restoration to combat Staphylococcus aureus and Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
  Dalton transactions (Cambridge, England : 2003) 2025 Mudarmah K, Abeydeera N, Chen G, Jogadi W, Krause JA, Budzik JM, Huang SD
• Tax1bp1 enhances bacterial virulence and promotes inflammatory responses during Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection of alveolar macrophages.
  bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology 2024 Chin J, Abeydeera N, Repasy T, Rivera-Lugo R, Mitchell G, Nguyen VQ, Zheng W, Richards A, Swaney DL, Krogan NJ, Ernst JD, Cox JS, Budzik JM
• History of tuberculosis disease is associated with genetic regulatory variation in Peruvians.
  PLoS genetics 2024 Nieto-Caballero VE, Reijneveld JF, Ruvalcaba A, Innocenzi G, Abeydeera N, Asgari S, Lopez K, Iwany SK, Luo Y, Nathan A, Fernandez-Salinas D, Chiñas M, Huang CC, Zhang Z, León SR, Calderon RI, Lecca L,…
• Transferrin-inspired iron delivery across the cell membrane using [(L2Fe)2(μ-O)] (L = chlorquinaldol) to harness anticancer activity of ferroptosis.
  Dalton transactions (Cambridge, England : 2003) 2024 Abeydeera N, Mudarmah K, Pant BD, Krause JA, Zheng YR, Huang SD
• Lipophilic Fe(III)-Complex with Potent Broad-Spectrum Anticancer Activity and Ability to Overcome Pt Resistance in A2780cis Cancer Cells.
  Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) 2023 Abeydeera N, Stilgenbauer M, Pant BD, Mudarmah K, Dassanayake TM, Zheng YR, Huang SD
• Harnessing the Dual Antimicrobial Mechanism of Action with Fe(8-Hydroxyquinoline)3 to Develop a Topical Ointment for Mupirocin-Resistant MRSA Infections.
  Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) 2023 Abeydeera N, Benin BM, Mudarmah K, Pant BD, Chen G, Shin WS, Kim MH, Huang SD
• Broad-Spectrum Antimicrobial Activity of Ultrafine (BiO)2CO3 NPs Functionalized with PVP That Can Overcome the Resistance to Ciprofloxacin, AgNPs and Meropenem in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
  Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) 2023 Pant BD, Abeydeera N, Dubadi R, Kim MH, Huang SD
• Bi2O3 nanoparticles exhibit potent broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity and the ability to overcome Ag-, ciprofloxacin- and meropenem-resistance in P. aeruginosa: the next silver bullet of metal antimicrobials?
  Biomaterials science 2022 Pant BD, Benin BM, Abeydeera N, Kim MH, Huang SD
• Harnessing the toxicity of dysregulated iron uptake for killing Staphylococcus aureus: reality or mirage?
  Biomaterials science 2022 Abeydeera N, Yu B, Pant BD, Kim MH, Huang SD
• An aluminum lining to the dark cloud of silver resistance: harnessing the power of potent antimicrobial activity of γ-alumina nanoparticles.
  Biomaterials science 2021 Dassanayake TM, Dassanayake AC, Abeydeera N, Pant BD, Jaroniec M, Kim MH, Huang SD
• Lipophilic Ga Complex with Broad-Spectrum Antimicrobial Activity and the Ability to Overcome Gallium Resistance in both Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus.
  Journal of medicinal chemistry 2021 Wang Z, Li J, Benin BM, Yu B, Bunge SD, Abeydeera N, Huang SD, Kim MH
• Synthesis, Characterization, and BSA-Binding Studies of Novel Sulfonated Zinc-Triazine Complexes.
  Bioinorganic chemistry and applications 2018 Abeydeera N, Perera IC, Perera T