Athula Attygalle (aattygal)

Athula Attygalle

Teaching Professor

Charles V. Schaefer, Jr. School of Engineering and Science

Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology

McLean Hall 312
(201) 216-8196

Education

  • PhD (1983) University of Keele (Chemistry)
  • MS (1977) University of Sri Lanka (Biochemistry)
  • BS (1975) University of Ceylon (Chemistry)

Research

Center for Mass Spectrometry
Mass Spectrometric Ion fragmentations
Bioanalytical Chemistry
Microchemical techniques
Chromatography
GC-Infrared SpectrometryNatural Products
Chemical Communication and Defense in Arthropods
Chemical Ecology“Chemical Prospecting” by Pharmacological Screening of Tropical Rain Forest Natural Products.

Institutional Service

  • Stevens Institute of Technology Member
  • Search Committee for Director of Technology Commercialization Chair
  • Research and Entrepreneurship Committee Member
  • Research and Entrepreneurship Committee Member
  • Graduate Student Selection Committee Member
  • SES Faculty Advisory Council Member

Professional Service

  • American Society for mass spectrometry Member of editorial advisory Committee
  • Journal of American Society for Mass spectrometry Editorial Adviser
  • Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry Editorial Board Member
  • Many Journals and funding agencies ad hoc reviewer

Honors and Awards

1979, UNESCO Fellowship (Tokyo Institute of Technology)

1981, British Council Award for Graduate Tuition Fee Support

1982, Edwina Mountbatten Award

1984, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship, Germany

Professional Societies

  • ASMS – American Society for Mass Spectrometry Member
  • RSC – Royal Society of Chemsitry Fellow
  • ACS – American Chemical Society Member
  • AvH – Alexander von Humboldt Association Fellow

Grants, Contracts and Funds

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: CHEMICAL ECOLOGY OF HOST SPECIALIZATION IN PHORID PARASITOIDS OF ANT: AN EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS. National Science Foundation Award # 1052372 (Sept 2011- August 2014)

Patents and Inventions

Insect Deterrent Azamacrolides, Eisner, T., Attygalle, A.B., and McCormick, K.D. U.S. Patent No. 5,185,365.

Tetradecatrienyl and tetradecadienyl acetates and their use as sex attractants for tomato pests., Attygalle, A. B., Jham, J. N., Svatos, A., Frighetto, R. T. S. U.S. Patent No. 5,728,376.

Macrocyclic Polyamine Lactones & Derivatives Thereof & Their Use as Arthropod Repellents. Attygalle, A. B., Eisner, T., Farmer J., Meinwald J., Schroeder F., Smedley S. U.S. Patent No. 6,384,026

Analyte Ionization by Charge Exchange for Sample Analysis under Ambient Conditions. Chang-Chin Chan, Mark Bolgar, Scott Miller, Zhihua Yang, Athula B. Attygalle. U.S. Patent App # 12/893597.

Combined Liquid/Gas (LIGA) inlet for Sample Analysis by liquid chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry under ambient conditions. Athula Attygalle, Zhihua Yang. U.S. Patent App # 61/319502.

Analyte ionization by charge exchange for sample analysis under ambient conditions. Chang-Ching Chan, Mark Bolgar, Scott Miller, Zhihua Yang, Athula B. Attygalle. U.S. Patent App # 61/381352.

A Production Method for Gas-Phase Metal anions. Athula B. Attygalle, Carl Weisbecker. U.S. Patent App # 61/317079.

Selected Publications

Journal Article

  1. Attygalle, A.; Kumar, M. (2023). Dependence of collision-induced mass spectra of protonated Michler’s ketone (MK) on the nature of LC-MS mobile phase. Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (vol. 34). American Chemical Society.
  2. Attygalle, A. (2023). Impact of Ambient Vapors on Spectra of 4-Nitroaniline Recorded under Atmospheric Solids Analysis Probe (ASAP) Mass Spectrometric Conditions. Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (1 ed., vol. 34, pp. 205-217). American Chemical Society.
  3. Attygalle, A. (2023). Real-Time Monitoring of Reactions by Headspace Sampling under Ambient Mass Spectrometric Conditions. Journal of Chemical Education (6 ed., vol. 100, pp. 2207-2214). American Chemical Society .
  4. Attygalle, A. (2022). Evidence of Gas-Phase Attachment of Molecular Oxygen to Deprotonated Hydroquinone During Ion-mobility Mass Spectrometry. Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (10 ed., vol. 33, pp. 1816-1824). American Chemical Society.
  5. Kumar, M. B.; Zheng, Z. B.; Nishshanka, U. B.; Xia, H. B.; Weisbecker, C. B.; Attygalle, A. (2022). Fragmentation pathways of deprotonated ortho-hydroxybenzyl alcohol. Journal of Mass Spectrometry (vol. 57, pp. e4829.). Hoboken.
  6. Attygalle, A. (2022). Short-chain Carboxylic Acids in the Scent Gland Secretions of the Eastern Small-scaled Burrowing Asp (Atractaspis fallax: Lamprophiidae, Serpentes, Reptilia). . Biochemical Systematics and Ecology (vol. 105, pp. 104548).
  7. Ma, Y. B.; Zheng, Z. B.; Attygalle, A. B.; Kim , I.; Du, H. (2022). Untargeted urine metabolite profiling by mass spectrometry aided by multivariate statistical analysis to predict prostate cancer treatment outcome. Analyst (vol. 147, pp. 3043-3054). Hoboken: Royal Society of Chemistry.
  8. Attygalle, A. B.; Pavlov, P.; Ruzicka, J. (2022). Monoisotopic Mass? . Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (vol. 33, pp. 5-10). American Chemical Society.
    https://doi.org/10.1021/jasms.1c00110.
  9. Attygalle, A.; Hearth, K. B.; Iyengar, V.; Morgan , R. C. (2021). Biosynthesis of Quinoline by a Stick Insect. Journal of Natural Products (vol. 84, pp. 527-530). American Chemical Society.
  10. Zheng , .; Attygalle, A. B. (2021). Impact of ambient vapors present in an electrospray ionization source on gas-phase ion structures. Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (vol. 32, pp. 725-735). American Chemical Society.
  11. Rork, A.; Xu, S.; Attygalle, A. B.; Renner, T. (2021). Primary Metabolism Co-Opted for Defensive Chemical Production in the Carabid Beetle, Harpalus pensylvanicus. Journal of Chemical Ecology (vol. 47, pp. 334-349). Springer.
  12. Herath, K.; Previs, S.; Roddy, T.; Attygalle, A.; Gonzalez, I.; Genilloud, O.; Singh, S. (2021). Rapid, Selective and Sensitive Method for Semi-Targeted Discovery of Congeneric Natural Products by Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry. Journal of Natural Products (vol. 84, pp. 814-823). American Chemical Society.
  13. Ma, Y.; Chi, J.; Zheng, Z.; Attygalle, A.; Kim , I. Y.; Du, H. (2021). Therapeutic Prognosis of Prostate Cancer Using Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering of Patient Urine and Multivariate Statistical Analysis. Journal of Biophotonics (vol. 14, pp. 1-11). Hoboken: Wiley.
  14. Pavlov, J.; Zheng, Z.; Douce, D.; Bajic, S.; Attygalle, A. (2021). Helium-Plasma-Ionization (HePI) Mass Spectrometry of Metallocenes and their Derivatives. . Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (2 ed., vol. 32, pp. 548-559). American Chemical Society.
  15. Attygalle, A.; Xu, S.. Biosynthetic origin of benzoquinones in the explosive discharge of the bombardier beetle Brachinus elongatulus. The Science of Nature (vol. 107). Springer-Verlag GmbH.
  16. Jariwala, F. B.; Hibbs, J. A.; Zhuk, I.; Sukhishvili, S. A.; Attygalle, A. (2020). Rapid determination of aminoglycosides in pharmaceutical preparations by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. Journal of Analytical Science and Technology (1 ed., vol. 11).
  17. Chandran, J.; Zheng, Z.; Thomas, V. I.; Rajalakshmi, C.; Attygalle, A. (2020). LC-MS analysis of p-aminosalicylic acid under electrospray ionization conditions manifests a profound solvent effect. The Analyst (15 ed., vol. 145, pp. 5333-5344).
  18. Attygalle, A.; Xu, S.; Moore, W.; McManus, R.; Gill, A.; Will, K. (2020). Biosynthetic origin of benzoquinones in the explosive discharge of the bombardier beetle Brachinus elongatulus. Science of Nature (4 ed., vol. 107).
  19. Errabelli, R.; Zheng, Z.; Attygalle, A. (2020). Formation of Protonated ortho-Quinonimide from ortho-Iodoaniline in the Gas Phase by a Molecular-Oxygen-Mediated, ortho-Isomer-Specific Fragmentation Mechanism. Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (4 ed., vol. 31, pp. 864-872).
  20. Xu, S.; Errabeli, R.; Will, K.; Arias, E.; Attygalle, A. (2019). 3-Methyl-1-(methylthio)-2-butene: a component in the foul-smelling defensive secretion of two Ceroglossus species (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Chemoecology (4 ed., vol. 29, pp. 171-178).
  21. Mehta, R.; Zheng, Z.; Pavlov, J.; Attygalle, A. (2019). Chalcophile chemistry for enhanced detection of copper in its compounds and minerals. Polyhedron (vol. 167, pp. 127-136).
  22. Pavlov, J.; Attygalle, A. (2019). Gold Nanoparticles (AuNPs) as Reactive Matrix for Detection of Trace Levels of HCN in Air by Laser Desorption/Ionization Mass Spectrometry (LDI-MS). Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (5 ed., vol. 30, pp. 806-813).
  23. Xu, S.; Errabelli, R.; Feener, D. H.; Noble, K.; Attygalle, A. (2019). Identification of alkylpyrazines by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Journal of Chromatography A (vol. 1589, pp. 149-161).
  24. Zheng, Z.; Pavlov, J.; Attygalle, A. (2019). Fortuitous Ion-Molecule Reaction Enables Enumeration of Metal-Hydrogen Bonds Present in Gaseous Ions. ACS Omega (2 ed., vol. 4, pp. 3965-3972).
  25. Zheng, Z.; Pavlov, J.; Attygalle, A. (2019). Fortuitous Ion-Molecule Reaction Enables Enumeration of Metal-Hydrogen Bonds Present in Gaseous Ions. ACS Omega (2 ed., vol. 4, pp. 3965-3972).
  26. Erabelli, R.; Xu, S.; Attygalle, A. (2018). Gas-phase protomers of p-(dimethylamino)chalcone investigated by travelling-wave ion mobility mass spectrometry (TWIMS). Journal of Mass Spectrometry (10 ed., vol. 53, pp. 954-962).
  27. Xu, S.; Errabeli, R.; Feener, D. H.; Noble, K.; Attygalle, A. (2018). Alkyl-Dimethylpyrazines in Mandibular Gland Secretions of Four Odontomachus Ant Species (Formicidae: Ponerinae). Journal of Chemical Ecology (5 ed., vol. 44, pp. 444-451).
  28. Xia, H.; Attygalle, A. (2018). Transformation of the gas-phase favored O-protomer of p-aminobenzoic acid to its unfavored N-protomer by ion activation in the presence of water vapor: An ion-mobility mass spectrometry study. Journal of Mass Spectrometry (4 ed., vol. 53, pp. 353-360).
  29. Lal, S.; Zheng, Z.; Pavlov, J.; Attygalle, A. (2018). Brimstone chemistry under laser light assists mass spectrometric detection and imaging the distribution of arsenic in minerals. Dalton Transactions (25 ed., vol. 47, pp. 8221-8228).