BSc, University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka
MS, PhD, Northeastern University
Dr. Thayaparan Paramanathan (Dr. Thaya) is a biophysicist with interests in applying physics techniques to explore biological systems at single molecule level.
Education: Dr. Thaya received his PhD in physics from Northeastern University investigating how cancer drugs interact with DNA using optical tweezers under Prof. Mark C. Williams, a Fellow of the American Physical Society and one of the leading researchers in the field of using optical tweezers to study DNA interactions. After graduating from Northeastern, Dr. Thaya did his postdoctoral work at Brandeis University with Prof. Jeff Gelles, who is considered one of the pioneers in single molecule imaging, and Prof. Jane Kondev, who is a world renowned biophysicist. At Brandeis he explored the effect of competitors on dissociation of non-covalently bound biomolecules using TIRF (Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence) Microscopy, another physics technique that is used to observe multiple single molecules at the same time.
Research: Dr. Thaya has published multiple research articles in leading, high impact journals, which have been sited by scholars from 20 different countries. His recent work titled " A general mechanism for competitor-induced dissociation of molecular complexes" is published in Nature Communications. He is in the process of building a Single Molecule Biophysics Lab at Bridgewater State University where he is planning to involve undergraduates in cutting edge biophysics research in collaboration with Williams Lab at Northeastern University and Gelles Lab at Brandeis University.
Teaching: Dr. Thaya has over 5 years of full time experience teaching undergraduate physics at University of Jaffna in Sri Lanka and at Assumption College in Worcester, MA prior to joining Bridgewater State University. He currently teaches calculus-based general physics, Optics, Modern Physics and Electronics.