SWEDISH SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK

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Unit of Comparative Medicine, Department of Neuroscience; Uppsala University:

Postal address: Institutionen för neurovetenskap (NEURO). Försöksdjursvetenskap, Box 572, 751 23 Uppsala
Visiting address: Biomedical Centre (BMC), Husargatan 3, D1 plan 2
Web page: http://www.neuro.uu.se/forskning/forskargrupp.html&id=24

The Division of Comparative Medicine’s research activities are focused on basic laboratory animal science, animal welfare and comparative medicine.

Ongoing research connected to South Asia:

Mahinda Don Kommalage from Sri Lanka worked at the department between 2000 and 2005. He defended his doctoral dissertation on ”Spinal acetylcholine release – Mechanisms and receptor involvement” on 14 October 2005. Faculty opponent was Professor Ernst Brodin, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet Medical University, Stockholm.
Abstract: There are two aspect in relevance in the dissertation project. One has been trying to investigate Organophosphate, which is a common agro-poisoning in Sri Lanka, and its involvement in poisoning effect on animals. The other apect of importance has been pain transmission in the spinal cord.

Dr. Kommalage has now returned to Sri Lanka, and works as a senior Lecturer in the Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ruhuna. His research still focuses on investigating the involvement of spinal acetylcholine receptor in spinal pain transmission and interaction with other receptors in the spinal cord. See his personal web page.
On 11 July 2009, Dr. Kommalage and his colleague Pasan Hewawasm, both from University of Ruhuna, published an article in the international medical journal Lancet. The article is entitled ”Sri Lanka: the aftermath”, and is based on their own experiences from the situation on the ground among internally displaced people in Sri Lanka while working in a field clinic in a camp for internally displaced people in May, 2009. The two researchers were members of a voluntary health-care team, among the approximately 171 000 internally displaced people who had fled the conflict zone in northern Sri Lanka during April 2009. Read the article in Lancet (as a pdf-file).