Research

For my master’s research at New Mexico State University, I investigated soil microbial community responses to global change drivers, focusing on how environmental stressors influence fungal and bacterial community composition and function using molecular ecology methods. During my undergraduate thesis, I isolated cellulose-degrading fungi from soil and characterized their cellulase activity to evaluate their potential for industrial applications. Together with hands-on experience in molecular techniques and teaching, this work has shaped my interest in plant-microbe interactions and molecular mechanisms underlying ecosystem and cellular responses. I am now particularly interested in advancing into plant molecular cell biology.

Teaching

I have experience as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in General Microbiology at New Mexico State University (2024-2025), where I instructed students in microbial culturing, staining techniques, DNA extraction, and identification. Previously, I served as a Lecturer (Probationary) at NSBM Green University, Sri Lanka (2022-2024), teaching Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Cell Biology, and Biomolecules. I also worked as a Teaching Assistant (2021-2022) at the same institution, and as a Demonstrator at the University of Peradeniya (2020-2021), supporting laboratory instruction in molecular biology and biotechnology.

Publications

Journal Articles
1. Jayasundara, E. J. M. I. K., & Romero Olivares, A. L. (in press). Free-living fungi in the Anthropocene and impacts on public health, food security, and biodiversity. Mycologia.

Poster Presentations
1. Jayasundara, E. J. M. I. K., & Romero Olivares, A. L. (2026, March 17–22). Many sites, many stories: Context-dependent fungal responses to global change drivers. Poster presented at the 33rd Fungal Genetics Conference, Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove, CA, United States.
2. Jayasundara, E. J. M. I. K., & Romero Olivares, A. L. (2025, August 10–15). Microbial community responses to global change drivers: A large-scale analysis across LTER sites in the USA and Puerto Rico. Poster presented at the Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, United States.
3. Jayasundara, E. J. M. I. K., & Romero Olivares, A. L. (2025, March 29). Microbial community responses to global change drivers: A largescale analysis across global change experiments in the USA and Puerto Rico. Poster presented at the Department of Biology BioSymposium, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, United States.

Conference Proceedings
1. Sapugoda, S. G. V. C. L., & Jayasundara, E. J. M. I. K. (2026). CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing in biomedical science. In B. Deepachandi & R. Ranaweera (Eds.), Transformative applied research: Breakthrough research in a changing world (pp. 71–78). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003774105
2. Samaranayake, A. U. A., Kumari, V. P. S., & Jayasundara, E. J. M. I. K. (2025). Diversity and adaptive mechanisms of oil-degrading bacteria in varied environments: A comprehensive review. In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Transformative Applied Research (ICTAR 2024) (pp. 148–153). Sri Lanka. 
3. Jayasekara, K. A. H. D. A. S., & Jayasundara, E. J. M. I. K. (2024). Advances in penicillin-producing fungi and enzymes: A review. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Research Symposium on Traditional Medicine (AyurEx Colombo) (p. 197). Sri Lanka.

Topics

  • Biotechnology
  • Cell biology
  • Molecular biology
  • Molecular genetics
  • Plant molecular biology
  • Plant-soil interactions
  • Soil microbial ecology