Prof. Lakmal Fonseka Presents at ASTMH 2025

We are proud to announce that Prof. C. Lakmal Fonseka delivered an oral presentation at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH), the world’s leading conference in tropical medicine and global health.

His presentation, “Performance of a Rapid Molecular Diagnostic Platform at Differentiating Dengue and Leptospirosis in a Tropical Setting,” highlighted innovative research using a host-response RT-PCR assay to accurately distinguish dengue and leptospirosis in a tropical, resource-limited setting.

The study demonstrated high diagnostic accuracy, with performance comparable to established biomarkers such as C-reactive protein (CRP), underscoring the potential of rapid molecular diagnostics to improve patient care in Sri Lanka and similar settings.

This work was conducted through the Duke–Ruhuna Collaborative Research Centre by an international team of investigators, including C. Lakmal Fonseka, Ilya Zhbannikov, Rachel Myers, Champika K. Bodinayake, Ajith Nagahawatte, Ruvini Kurukulasooriya, Jack Anderson, Alana Brown, Bradly P. Nicholson, Thomas W. Burke, Micah T. McClain, L. Gayani Tillekeratne and Christopher W. Woods.

We warmly congratulate Prof. Fonseka and the entire Duke–Ruhuna research team on this outstanding achievement.