Indusha

Indusha KUGATHAS
PhD student
Research Institute for Environmental and Occupational Health (IRSET) INSERM UMR 1085

e-mail: indusha.kugathas@inserm.fr
LinkedIn

Who is Indusha Kugathas?

I am a French PhD student with Sri Lankan origin, currently doing my thesis at the Research Institute for Environmental and Occupational Health (Rennes, France) under the supervision of Dr Frédéric Chalmel and Dr Antoine Rolland. Having a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and a master’s degree in in silico drug design, the thesis now allows me to open myself to the world of toxicology. I am studying the impact of endocrine disruptors on gonad development with toxicogenomic and predictive toxicology approaches.

What is your role in the FREIA project?

I am involved in WP1, WP2 and WP4 of the FREIA project, mainly doing bulk RNA sequencing data analysis and sharing. 

What is an interesting result you have obtained so far? 

So far, we have shown within WP2 that perinatal exposure to two known endocrine disruptors, diethylstilbestrol and ketoconazole, induced significant transcriptional alterations of genes encoding steroidogenic enzymes. And we were able to identify candidate genes that could be used as potential biomarkers of exposure to ovarian endocrine disruptors after perinatal exposure.

What would you like to accomplish within the FREIA project?

I would really like to contribute to the identification of sensitive biomarkers of female reproductive toxicity. 

Is there anything else you would like to share with the people following FREIA?

There are few studies that address the alterations in female reproduction function caused by endocrine disruptors. I am proud to be part of the FREIA project that focuses on this goal.