Dr. Rasi Wickramasinghe is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Cardiology at the McGovern School of Medicine at the University of Texas in Houston. In addition to his responsibilities as a physician and educator, he is also a medical scientist and researcher leading the Translational Research Group at the University of Texas, where he focuses on designing and implementing a comprehensive biorepository to analyze disease patterns. Importantly, Dr Wickramasinghe’s research interest is in metabolic syndrome, which is a poorly understood cardiovascular disease process affecting more than 70% of South Asians, which increases their susceptibility to diabetes and coronary artery disease by several fold compared to caucasians. By both analyzing genetic, biochemical markers in patients with metabolic syndrome and by studying their dietary patterns, he is interested in finding ways to reduce the high incidence of heart disease among South Asians.

Dr Wickramasinghe is a product of Ananda College, Colombo, and after his A/Levels forfeited an opportunity to enter the Colombo Medical School to attend Stanford University on a full scholarship. He graduated from Stanford with a B.Sc. in Molecular Biology with Honors and Distinction and won the Firestone Medal for his research. Thereafter, he was accepted to Johns Hopkins Medical School as their first ever foreign student into the combined M.D./Ph.D. program. In 2009, he was awarded the Martin and Carol Macht Prize in recognition of the best PhD dissertation at Johns Hopkins.

Following his medical training Dr Wickramasinghe received his residency training in Internal Medicine at Johns Hopkins and his fellowship training in Cardiology, Interventional Cardiology and Structural Heart Disease from the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to his academic work, he currently practices as a cardiologist at the Memorial Hermann Hospital at the Texas Medical Center in Houston, and at the Memorial Hermann Hospital in Sugar Land, Texas. His clinical interests are in cardiology, interventional cardiology and structural heart disease particularly with the minimally invasive treatment of valve disease (transcatheter valve therapy). Outside of work, he volunteers his time as a lead alumni interviewer for Stanford University admissions, and is involved with numerous other activities in the community. In 2005, Dr. Wickramasinghe led the effort to donate more than $2.5 million worth of medical equipment to the Ministry of Health in Sri Lanka during the Tsunami to deal with healthcare in the affected areas. This project was done with the help of the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Washington DC and the former Ambassador Mr. Devinda Subasinghe.

Dr. Rasi Wickramasinghe was born and raised in Mount Lavinia, and is the son of Dr. H.T. Wickramasinghe. Dr. Wickramasinghe’s wife Dinoo was born and raised in Northern Virginia and they have two children Himali and Sohan.