Dr. H.P. Vasantha Rupasinghe

Food Biochemist

Dr. H. P. Vasantha Rupasinghe is an associate member of IMPART and a professor and Killam Chair in Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals at the Department of Plant, Food, and Environmental Sciences, Dalhousie University. He holds a cross-appointment with the Department of Pathology at the Faculty of Medicine.

Dr. Rupasinghe’s primary research interests include elucidating the mechanism of actions of plant flavonoids against cancer chemoprevention and treatment; exploring the neuroprotective and cardio-protective properties of flavonoids; polyphenols-dependent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities; synthesizing novel acylated flavonoids and examining their anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, cytoprotective and hypolipidemic properties; and identifying unique phytochemicals that can be used as anti-infective, anti-biofilm and anti-adhesive agents against Streptococcus pyogenes.

Dr. Rupasinghe’s research program, which has attracted over $7.5M (since 2004) in external funding, has resulted in five patent filings, one license agreement, and contributions to the commercialization of over a dozen value-added food products. He has published over 170 peer-reviewed articles and 20 book chapters (Google Scholar author h-index 42 and total citations over 5300) and trained over 100 highly qualified personnel (HQP). He is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology (CIFST).