Professor Jaya Jayasinghe

Biography

Professor Jayasinghe holds the Chair in Oral Sciences and is the Associate Director for Medical and Dental Sciences at the Institute of Dentistry.

After graduation as a Dentist from the University of Peradeniya, Srilanka and after a short spell in clinical practice, he joined the Anatomy faculty of the Medical School. He was trained as a Clinical Anatomist and subsequently completed his Master’s and Doctoral degrees at the University College London. After returning to Srilanka he continued his academic career in four Medical Schools and received a merit promotion to a Professorship at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Srilanka. During this period, he spent 2 sabbatical years at the Universiti Sains Malaysia and held several research fellowships in Japan, USA, UK, and UAE. He returned to the UK in 2003 as the Lead Anatomist for Medical and Biomedical courses at the St. George’s, University of London. In 2008 he was recruited as the first academic staff member for the newly established Graduate Entry Dental School of the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.

Professor Jayasinghe has extensive experience in curriculum development, assessment, standard setting techniques, developing and leading teaching modules and new courses. He was involved in establishing two new medical and two dental schools and has experience in varieties of teaching/learning modalities and curricula, including that promote student-cantered learning. He also functioned as Head of Anatomy in 2 Medical schools and held various senior administrative positions during his 40 years of academic career. He has been a member of the Court of Examiners of the Royal College Surgeons of England since 2006 and regularly examines MRCS in local and overseas centres. He is also involved in organizing and running several postgraduate teaching programmes and has been an external examiner to 10 local and overseas Medical and Dental Schools for both undergraduate and postgraduate courses. 

Research Overview

Current Research Interests.

Pedagogical research on Curriculum development, Assessments, Standard Setting and innovative teaching methods.

Aetiology and biomarkers for Head and Neck Cancer

Surgical Anatomy – Recent projects include

                Anterior surgical approaches for cervical radiculopathy

                Comparison of superficial parotidectomy with extracapsular dissection

                Surgical treatment for trigeminal neuralgia

                Incidence of Frey’s syndrome after salivary gland surgery

                Non-metric traits in human skull and their relationship to skull base surgery

Biomedical honours project supervision

Recently completed projects

1. Comparison of Microvascular Decompression and Gamma Knife Radiosurgery for the Surgical Treatment of Trigeminal Neuralgia
2. Treatment of Trigeminal Neuralgia - Review of the different pharmacological strategies compared to microvascular decompression in the long-term treatment of Trigeminal Neuralgia
3. Comparison of Two Age Estimation Techniques in Adults Using Dental Radiographs
4. Incidence of Calcified Interclinoid Ligaments and Carotico-clinoid Foramen in Adult Skulls and Their Clinical Implications
5. Patient reported incidence of gustatory sweating after parotidectomy.
6. The Identification of the Posterior Deep Temporal nerve Groove in skulls of a Scottish Population

PhD Students

Prarthna Clare

https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/r01mpc17

Nadisha Piyarathne

https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/r01nsp17

Funding and Grants

Recent Research Grants

a) University of Aberdeen Global Challenge Research Fund Internal Pump Priming Fund: “Geographical Information Systems for mapping oral cancer incidence and high risk behaviours in Sri Lanka”. (2019). Value £10,000.

b) Grant for Research Pilot Studies from Friends of ANCHOR: “Morphological and Immunological Characterization of HPV Positive Head and Neck Cancer and Precancer”. RS17007. Duration: 24 months (2017-2019). Value: £9,719.00.

c) University of Aberdeen internal research funding schemes, INVESTMENT IN SCHOOL PIs: “Biomarkers in high risk oral cancer patients: working with Sri Lanka towards innovation in prevention, diagnosis and prognosis”. (2019). Value: £4,363

Teaching Responsibilities

Organization, teaching, and assessment of Applied Anatomy, Developmental Biology, and Histology.