Further to the advertorial that was published in the Educational Times section of The Sunday Times of 14th December 2008 under the heading "Spectrum Students - A boon to the country" we have received an E mail from Dr.Vajira H.W.Dissanayake MBBS (Colombo) PhD (Nottingham) Clinical Geneticist/Senior Lecturer, Human Genetics Unit, Faculty of Medicine University of Colombo and Honorary Head of Centre Asiri Centre for Genomic and Regenerative Medicine, Asiri Surgical Hospital clarifying certain facts stated in the said advertorial.
Dr. Dissanayake asserts as follows:-
1. There is no Unit called the "Human Genome Unit" in the Post Graduate Institute of Medicine University of Colombo.
2. There is no Bio informatics MSc at the PGIM.
3. The paper presentation at the Human Genome Meeting in Hyderabad India titled "The Sri Lankan Genome Variation Database" was based on the work carried out in the Human Genetics Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo by Pubudu Samarakoon under the supervision of Prof. Rohan W Jayasekara - Director of the Unit, and me. The idea of this project was conceived by me. Pubudu carried out the programming work under our direction and supervision. All three of us were authors of this paper.
4. As regards the quotation attributed to Pubudu he confirms that was not made by him and that the published photograph has been obtained from an unknown source and published without his consent.
5. Pubudu and I attended the Human Genome Meeting to present this work. The two other students of Spectrum who attended the Human Genome Meeting in Hyderabad India were not part of our delegation.
6. Shanjievan is not employed as a bioinformatician at the University of Colombo Faculty of Medicine. I have given him an opportunity to receive training in the Human Genetics unit under my supervision.
7. There is no 'Genome and Reproductive Medicine Unit" at Asiri Surgical Hospital.
8. Shobanbabu is not working at any unit or centre affiliated to the Asiri Surgical Hospital or the Asiri Group of Hospitals.
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