Nishad Jayasundara | Scholars@Duke

Nishad Jayasundara
Assistant Professor of Environmental Toxicology and Health

Dr. Jayasundara studies adverse ecological and human health outcomes of anthropogenic environmental change. Specifically, Dr. Jayasundara focuses on various teleost fish species (e.g., zebrafish Danio rerio and Atlantic killifish Fundulus heteroclitus) and conduct field and laboratory studies that integrate functional genomics analyses, in vitro and in vivo physiological and biochemical assays, and mathematical modeling approaches. Ongoing projects aim to:

1. Determine interactive effects of metals and pesticides on kidney mitochondrial function in the context of chronic kidney disease epidemic in agricultural communities based on environmental epidemiology and mechanistic toxicology studies.

2. Examine mitochondrial responses to acute and chronic exposure to heat stress during organismal development and linking to later-life metabolic consequences

3. Elucidate the role of genetic, epigenetic, and gut microbiome shifts in evolved resistance to chemical pollutants.

4. Assess rural water quality through citizen science and community engagement in Maine and Sri Lanka

Current Appointments & Affiliations

Assistant Professor of Environmental Toxicology and Health, Environmental Sciences and Policy, Nicholas School of the Environment 2021
Assistant Professor in Medicine, Medicine, Nephrology, Medicine 2021
Assistant Research Professor of Global Health, Duke Global Health Institute, University Institutes and Centers 2021

Contact Information

Background
Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., Stanford University 2012
Duke Appointment History
- Adjunct Assistant Prof of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Environmental Sciences and Policy, Nicholas School of the Environment 2020
Academic Positions Outside Duke
- Adjunct Assistant Professor , University of Maine . 2021 - 2024
Research
Selected Grants
- Duke University Program in Environmental Health awarded by National Institutes of Health 2013 - 2024
External Relationships
- THEME Institute
Publications & Artistic Works
Selected Publications
- Academic Articles
  - Babich, Remy, Emily Craig, Abigail Muscat, Jane Disney, Anna Farrell, Linda Silka, and Nishad Jayasundara. “Defining drinking water metal contaminant mixture risk by coupling zebrafish behavioral analysis with citizen science.” Scientific Reports 11, no. 1 (August 27, 2021): 17303. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96244-4.
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  - De Silva, P Mangala C. S., T. D. K. S. C. Gunasekara, S. D. Gunarathna, P. M. M. A. Sandamini, R. A. I. Pinipa, E. M. D. V. Ekanayake, W. A. K. G. Thakshila, S. S. Jayasinghe, E. P. S. Chandana, and Nishad Jayasundara. “Urinary Biomarkers of Renal Injury KIM-1 and NGAL: Reference Intervals for Healthy Pediatric Population in Sri Lanka.” Children (Basel, Switzerland) 8, no. 8 (August 9, 2021). https://doi.org/10.3390/children8080684.
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  - Redfern, Lauren K., Nishad Jayasundara, David R. Singleton, Richard T. Di Giulio, James Carlson, Susan J. Sumner, and Claudia K. Gunsch. “The role of gut microbial community and metabolomic shifts in adaptive resistance of Atlantic killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus) to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.” The Science of the Total Environment 776 (July 2021): 145955. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145955.
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  - Abdul, K. S. M., P Mangala C. S. De Silva, E. M. D. V. Ekanayake, W. A. K. G. Thakshila, S. D. Gunarathna, T. D. K. S. C. Gunasekara, S. S. Jayasinghe, et al. “Occupational Paraquat and Glyphosate Exposure May Decline Renal Functions among Rural Farming Communities in Sri Lanka.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18, no. 6 (March 22, 2021). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18063278.
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  - Gunasekara, T. D. K. S. C., P Mangala C. S. De Silva, Chula Herath, Sisira Siribaddana, Nipuna Siribaddana, Channa Jayasumana, Sudheera Jayasinghe, Maria Cardenas-Gonzalez, and Nishad Jayasundara. “The Utility of Novel Renal Biomarkers in Assessment of Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology (CKDu): A Review.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17, no. 24 (December 18, 2020). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17249522.
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  - Gearhart-Serna, Larisa M., John B. Davis, Mohit Kumar Jolly, Nishad Jayasundara, Scott J. Sauer, Richard T. Di Giulio, and Gayathri R. Devi. “A polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon-enriched environmental chemical mixture enhances AhR, antiapoptotic signaling and a proliferative phenotype in breast cancer cells.” Carcinogenesis 41, no. 12 (December 2020): 1648–59. https://doi.org/10.1093/carcin/bgaa047.
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  - Babich, Remy, Jake C. Ulrich, EM Dilini V. Ekanayake, Andrey Massarsky, P Mangala C. S. De Silva, Pathmalal M. Manage, Brian P. Jackson, et al. “Kidney developmental effects of metal-herbicide mixtures: Implications for chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology.” Environment International 144 (November 2020): 106019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2020.106019.
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  - Babich, Remy, Heather Hamlin, LeeAnne Thayer, Madeline Dorr, Zheng Wei, Andrew Neilson, and Nishad Jayasundara. “Mitochondrial response and resilience to anthropogenic chemicals during embryonic development.” Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology. Toxicology & Pharmacology : Cbp 233 (July 2020): 108759. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpc.2020.108759.
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  - Volkoff, Savannah J., Joshua S. Osterberg, Nishad Jayasundara, Ellen Cooper, Heileen Hsu-Kim, Laura Rogers, Gretchen E. Gehrke, Saro Jayaraman, and Richard T. Di Giulio. “Embryonic Fundulus heteroclitus responses to sediment extracts from differentially contaminated sites in the Elizabeth River, VA.” Ecotoxicology (London, England) 28, no. 9 (November 2019): 1126–35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-019-02116-z.
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  - Lowndes, Julia S Stewart, Halley E. Froehlich, Allison Horst, Nishad Jayasundara, Malin L. Pinsky, Adrian C. Stier, Nina O. Therkildsen, and Chelsea L. Wood. “Supercharge your research: a ten-week plan for open data science.” Nature, October 31, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03335-4.
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  - Massarsky, Andrey, Nishad Jayasundara, Lilah Glazer, Edward D. Levin, G. L. Prasad, and Richard T. Di Giulio. “Outcomes of developmental exposure to total particulate matter from cigarette smoke in zebrafish (Danio rerio).” Neurotoxicology 68 (September 2018): 101–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuro.2018.07.003.
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  - Gearhart-Serna, Larisa M., Nishad Jayasundara, Moises Tacam, Richard Di Giulio, and Gayathri R. Devi. “Assessing Cancer Risk Associated with Aquatic Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Pollution Reveals Dietary Routes of Exposure and Vulnerable Populations.” J Environ Public Health 2018 (2018): 5610462. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/5610462.
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  - Pitt, Jordan A., Jordan S. Kozal, Nishad Jayasundara, Andrey Massarsky, Rafael Trevisan, Nick Geitner, Mark Wiesner, Edward D. Levin, and Richard T. Di Giulio. “Uptake, tissue distribution, and toxicity of polystyrene nanoparticles in developing zebrafish (Danio rerio).” Aquat Toxicol 194 (January 2018): 185–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquatox.2017.11.017.
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  - Jayasundara, Nishad. “Ecological significance of mitochondrial toxicants.” Toxicology 391 (November 2017): 64–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tox.2017.07.015.
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  - Jayasundara, Nishad, Pani W. Fernando, Joshua S. Osterberg, Kristina M. Cammen, Thomas F. Schultz, and Richard T. Di Giulio. “Cost of Tolerance: Physiological Consequences of Evolved Resistance to Inhabit a Polluted Environment in Teleost Fish Fundulus heteroclitus.” Environmental Science & Technology 51, no. 15 (August 2017): 8763–72. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b01913.
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  - Lindberg, C. D., N. Jayasundara, J. S. Kozal, T. C. Leuthner, and R. T. Di Giulio. “Resistance to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon toxicity and associated bioenergetic consequences in a population of Fundulus heteroclitus.” Ecotoxicology (London, England) 26, no. 3 (April 2017): 435–48. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-017-1775-6.
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  - Raftery, Tara D., Nishad Jayasundara, and Richard T. Di Giulio. “A bioenergetics assay for studying the effects of environmental stressors on mitochondrial function in vivo in zebrafish larvae.” Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology. Toxicology & Pharmacology : Cbp 192 (February 2017): 23–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpc.2016.12.001.
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  - Moore, David W., Pieter Booth, Anne Alix, Sabine E. Apitz, David Forrow, Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald, and Nishad Jayasundara. “Application of ecosystem services in natural resource management decision making.” Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management 13, no. 1 (January 2017): 74–84. https://doi.org/10.1002/ieam.1838.
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  - Massarsky, Andrey, Nishad Jayasundara, Jordan M. Bailey, Anthony N. Oliveri, Edward D. Levin, G. L. Prasad, and Richard T. Di Giulio. “Teratogenic, bioenergetic, and behavioral effects of exposure to total particulate matter on early development of zebrafish (Danio rerio) are not mimicked by nicotine.” Neurotoxicol Teratol 51 (September 2015): 77–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ntt.2015.09.006.
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  - Madigan, Daniel J., Aaron B. Carlisle, Luke D. Gardner, Nishad Jayasundara, Fiorenza Micheli, Kurt M. Schaefer, Daniel W. Fuller, and Barbara A. Block. “Assessing niche width of endothermic fish from genes to ecosystem.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 112, no. 27 (July 2015): 8350–55. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1500524112.
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  - Beers, Jody M., and Nishad Jayasundara. “Antarctic notothenioid fish: what are the future consequences of 'losses' and 'gains' acquired during long-term evolution at cold and stable temperatures?” The Journal of Experimental Biology 218, no. Pt 12 (June 2015): 1834–45. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.116129.
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  - Jayasundara, Nishad, Lars Tomanek, W Wesley Dowd, and George N. Somero. “Proteomic analysis of cardiac response to thermal acclimation in the eurythermal goby fish Gillichthys mirabilis.” The Journal of Experimental Biology 218, no. Pt 9 (May 2015): 1359–72. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.118760.
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  - Jayasundara, Nishad, Lindsey Van Tiem Garner, Joel N. Meyer, Kyle N. Erwin, and Richard T. Di Giulio. “AHR2-Mediated transcriptomic responses underlying the synergistic cardiac developmental toxicity of PAHs.” Toxicological Sciences : An Official Journal of the Society of Toxicology 143, no. 2 (February 2015): 469–81. https://doi.org/10.1093/toxsci/kfu245.
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  - Jayasundara, Nishad, Jordan S. Kozal, Mariah C. Arnold, Sherine S. L. Chan, and Richard T. Di Giulio. “High-Throughput Tissue Bioenergetics Analysis Reveals Identical Metabolic Allometric Scaling for Teleost Hearts and Whole Organisms.” Plos One 10, no. 9 (January 2015): e0137710. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0137710.
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  - Jayasundara, Nishad, Luke D. Gardner, and Barbara A. Block. “Effects of temperature acclimation on Pacific bluefin tuna (Thunnus orientalis) cardiac transcriptome.” American Journal of Physiology. Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology 305, no. 9 (November 2013): R1010–20. https://doi.org/10.1152/ajpregu.00254.2013.
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  - Jayasundara, N., T. M. Healy, and G. N. Somero. “Effects of temperature acclimation on cardiorespiratory performance of the Antarctic notothenioid Trematomus bernacchii.” Polar Biology 36, no. 7 (July 1, 2013): 1047–57. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-013-1327-3.
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  - Jayasundara, Nishad, and George N. Somero. “Physiological plasticity of cardiorespiratory function in a eurythermal marine teleost, the longjaw mudsucker, Gillichthys mirabilis.” The Journal of Experimental Biology 216, no. Pt 11 (June 2013): 2111–21. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.083873.
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  - Gardner, Luke D., Nishad Jayasundara, Pedro C. Castilho, and Barbara Block. “Microarray gene expression profiles from mature gonad tissues of Atlantic bluefin tuna, Thunnus thynnus in the Gulf of Mexico.” Bmc Genomics 13 (October 5, 2012): 530. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-13-530.
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  - Beale, K. M., D. W. Towle, N. Jayasundara, C. M. Smith, J. D. Shields, H. J. Small, and S. J. Greenwood. “Anti-lipopolysaccharide factors in the American lobster Homarus americanus: molecular characterization and transcriptional response to Vibrio fluvialis challenge.” Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology. Part D, Genomics & Proteomics 3, no. 4 (December 2008): 263–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbd.2008.07.001.
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  - Jayasundara, Nishad, David W. Towle, Dirk Weihrauch, and Céline Spanings-Pierrot. “Gill-specific transcriptional regulation of Na+/K+ -ATPase alpha-subunit in the euryhaline shore crab Pachygrapsus marmoratus: sequence variants and promoter structure.” The Journal of Experimental Biology 210, no. Pt 12 (June 2007): 2070–81. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.004309.
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  - Gans, Ian M., Remy Babich, Nishad Jayasundara, and James A. Coffman. “Glucocorticoid-Responsive Transcription Factor Klf9 Dynamically Regulates fkbp5 Activity and Metabolism,” n.d.
- Conference Papers
  - Jayasundara, N., J. Kozal, A. Massarsky, R. Trevisan, M. Blue, A. J. Bone, C. D. Lindberg, and R. T. Di Giulio. “Later-life persistent bioenergetic effects of exposure to multiple mitochondrial stressors during development in zebrafish Danio rerio.” In Integrative and Comparative Biology, 59:E342–E342. OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC, 2019.
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  - Gearhart-Serna, L. M., J. B. Davis, N. Jayasundara, M. K. Jolly, S. J. Sauer, H. Levine, R. T. Di Giulio, and G. R. Devi. “Exposure to a Naturally Occurring Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Mixture Triggers an Aggressive Phenotype in Estrogen Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer Cells.” In International Journal of Toxicology, 38:37–38. SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC, 2019.
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  - Wanner, N., M. Colwell, N. Jayasundara, R. Di Giulio, and C. Faulk. “DNA Methylation of Ultraconserved Noncoding Elements in Atlantic Killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus) Exposed to Environmental Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs).” In Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis, 59:94–94, 2018.
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  - Jayasundara, N., L. D. Gardner, D. T. Towle, and B. A. Block. “Warm fish with cold hearts: Cardiac thermal plasticity of Pacific bluefin tuna Thunnus orientalis.” In Integrative and Comparative Biology, 52:E86–E86, 2012.
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  - Jayasundara, N., and G. N. Somero. “Cardiac thermal plasticity in the longjaw mudsucker Gillichthys mirabilis.” In Integrative and Comparative Biology, 52:E269–E269, 2012.
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  - Castilho, Pedro Carvalho, Nishad Jayasundara, Ivona Mladineo, and Barbara B. Block. “Using skin mucus RNA to study gene expression in pacific bluefin tuna.” In Faseb Journal, Vol. 22, 2008.
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  - Jayasundara, N., C. Spanings-Pierrot, and D. W. Towle. “Salinity-induced changes in isoform-specific Na++K+-atpase gene expression in the European shore crab Pachygrapsus marmoratus.” In Integrative and Comparative Biology, 45:1150–1150, 2005.
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  - Jayasundara, N., C. Spanings-Pierrot, and D. W. Towle. “Quantitative analysis of hsp70 mRNA expression under salinity stress in the euryhaline shore crab Pachygrapsus marmoratus.” In Integrative and Comparative Biology, 44:709–709, 2004.
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Teaching & Mentoring
Recent Courses
- ENVIRON 393: Research Independent Study 2021
- ENVIRON 501: Environmental Toxicology 2021
- ENVIRON 610: Ecotoxicology 2021
- ENVIRON 899: Master's Project 2021

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Education, Training, & Certifications

Duke Appointment History

Academic Positions Outside Duke

Selected Grants

External Relationships

Selected Publications

Academic Articles

Conference Papers

Recent Courses