Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences

Dr Pritesh Prasad

Research Analyst

Researcher biography

Pritesh Prasad received his Bachelor of Science majoring in Chemistry and Physics (2007), and Master of Science in Chemistry (2011) from the University of the South Pacific (Fiji). In 2013 he obtained a PhD scholarship (International Postgraduate Research Scholarship) and joined Professor Rob Capon’s research group at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB), the University of Queensland (Brisbane, Australia). His PhD research was in Natural Products Chemistry with focus on marine biodiversity and exploring bioactive chemical space. At IMB he received training in detection, isolation and characterisation of small molecules (natural products). During his PhD, Pritesh also worked as a Laboratory Demonstrator for the First Year Chemistry and IES Foundation at School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences (SCMB), UQ. In 2017, he further gained experience as a Technical Officer for the First Year Chemistry Laboratory Programs at SCMB. His current role as a Senior Research Technician at QLD Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS), UQ, continues to expand his laboratory and field based research, as well as develop administrative skills in research and consultancy projects.

His research capabilities include:

  • Passive sampler’s preparation/assembly and deployment in aqueous environment for trace organic analysis.
  • Extraction of passive samplers incorporating relevant QA/QC for trace organic analytes (pesticides, herbicides, PPCPs, OCPs, PAHs).
  • Extraction of waste water and water for PFAS analysis.
  • Isolation and purification of metabolites by employing various chromatography techniques (size exclusion, biotage, normal/reverse phase – analytical/semi-preparative and preparative HPLC).
  • Nuclear magnetic spectrometer data acquisition.
  • NMR (1H, 13C, 1H-15N HSQC, 1H-13C HSQC, COSY, 1H-13C HMBC, ROESY) data analysis for structural characterisation of small molecules.
  • MS/MS fragmentation analysis of small peptidic small molecules.
  • Chemical degradation studies (Marfey’s methods for amino acid analysis).
  • Few steps synthesis for structural confirmation.
  • Preparation/review of technical documents and manuscripts.

Publications

Journal Articles (17)
Conference Papers (3)
Thesis (1)
Research Reports (9)

Journal Articles

Thai, Phong K., McDonough, Jeffrey T., Key, Trent A., Thapalia, Anita, Porman, Scott, Prasad, Pritesh, Fiorenza, Stephanie, Watanabe, Hirozumi, Barnes, Craig M. and Mueller, Jochen F. (2025). Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in rainfall runoff from an AFFF-impacted concrete pad: A field simulation study. Journal of Hazardous Materials Letters, 6 100137, 100137. doi: 10.1016/j.hazl.2024.100137
Que, Danielle E., Wang, Xianyu, Nilsson, Sandra, Zammit, Ian, Muir, Derek C. G., Rauert, Cassandra, Toms, Leisa-Maree L., Prasad, Pritesh, Shiels, Ryan G., Eaglesham, Geoff, Hobson, Peter, Langguth, Daman and Mueller, Jochen F. (2024). Trends of benzotriazoles and benzothiazoles in Australian pooled urine samples from 2012 to 2023. Environmental Science and Technology, 58 (45), 19960-19969. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.4c08824
Ghorbani Gorji, Sara, Mackie, Rachel, Prasad, Pritesh, Knight, Emma R., Qu, Xuan, Vardy, Suzanne, Bowles, Karl, Higgins, Christopher P., Thomas, Kevin V. and Kaserzon, Sarit L. (2024). Occurrence of Ultrashort-Chain PFASs in Australian Environmental Water Samples. Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 11 (12), 1362-1369. doi: 10.1021/acs.estlett.4c00750
Tan, Xiao, Dewapriya, Pradeep, Prasad, Pritesh, Chang, Yixin, Huang, Xumin, Wang, Yiqing, Gong, Xiaokai, Hopkins, Timothy E., Fu, Changkui, Thomas, Kevin V., Peng, Hui, Whittaker, Andrew Keith and Zhang, Cheng (2022). Efficient removal of perfluorinated chemicals from contaminated water sources using magnetic fluorinated polymer sorbents. Angewandte Chemie (International Edition), 61 (49) e202213071, e202213071. doi: 10.1002/anie.202213071
Tan, Xiao, Dewapriya, Pradeep, Prasad, Pritesh, Chang, Yixin, Huang, Xumin, Wang, Yiqing, Gong, Xiaokai, Hopkins, Timothy E., Fu, Changkui, Thomas, Kevin V., Peng, Hui, Whittaker, Andrew K. and Zhang, Cheng (2022). Efficient removal of perfluorinated chemicals from contaminated water sources using magnetic fluorinated polymer sorbents. Angewandte Chemie, 134 (49) e202213071, 1-9. doi: 10.1002/ange.202213071
Thai, Phong K., McDonough, Jeffrey T., Key, Trent A., Thompson, Jack, Prasad, Pritesh, Porman, Scott and Mueller, Jochen F. (2022). Release of perfluoroalkyl substances from AFFF-impacted concrete in a firefighting training ground (FTG) under repeated rainfall simulations. Journal of Hazardous Materials Letters, 3 100050, 1-5. doi: 10.1016/j.hazl.2022.100050
Zheng, Qiuda, Dewapriya, Pradeep, Eaglesham, Geoff, Reeks, Tim, Thompson, Jack, Ahmed, Fahad, Prasad, Pritesh, Thomas, Kevin V., Mueller, Jochen F. and Thai, Phong K. (2022). Direct injection analysis of oxypurinol and metformin in wastewater by hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. Drug Testing and Analysis, 14 (8), 1519-1524. doi: 10.1002/dta.3266
Prasad, Pritesh, Salim, Angela A., Khushi, Shamsunnahar, Khalil, Zeinab G., Quezada, Michelle and Capon, Robert J. (2019). Solvolysis artifacts: leucettazoles as cryptic macrocyclic alkaloid dimers from a Southern Australian marine sponge, Leucetta sp.. Marine Drugs, 17 (2) md17020106, 106. doi: 10.3390/md17020106
Dewapriya, Pradeep, Khalil, Zeinab G., Prasad, Pritesh, Salim, Angela A., Cruz-Morales, Pablo, Marcellin, Esteban and Capon, Robert J. (2018). Talaropeptides A-D: Structure and Biosynthesis of Extensively N-methylated Linear Peptides From an Australian Marine Tunicate-Derived Talaromyces sp. Frontiers in Chemistry, 6 394, 394. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2018.00394
Prasad, Pritesh, Zhang, Ailian, Salim, Angela A and Capon, Robert J (2018). Pursuing sesterterpene lactams in Australian Irciniidae sponges. Fitoterapia, 126, 83-89. doi: 10.1016/j.fitote.2017.09.003
Dewapriya, Pradeep, Prasad, Pritesh, Damodar, Rakesh, Salim, Angela A. and Capon, Robert J. (2017). Talarolide A, a cyclic heptapeptide hydroxamate from an Australian marine tunicate-associated fungus, Talaromyces sp. (CMB-TU011). Organic Letters, 19 (8), 2046-2049. doi: 10.1021/acs.orglett.7b00638
Vijayasarathy, Soumini, Prasad, Pritesh, Fremlin, Leith J., Ratnayake, Ranjala, Salim, Angela A., Khalil, Zeinab and Capon, Robert J. (2016). C3 and 2D C3 Marfey’s methods for amino acid analysis in natural products. Journal of Natural Products, 79 (2), 421-427. doi: 10.1021/acs.jnatprod.5b01125
Zhang, Fengying, Wang, Bin, Prasad, Pritesh, Capon, Robert J. and Jia, Yanxing (2015). Asymmetric total synthesis of (+)-dragmacidin D reveals unexpected stereocomplexity. Organic Letters, 17 (6), 1529-1532. doi: 10.1021/acs.orglett.5b00327
Singh, Satyendra, Prasad, Pritesh, Subramani, Ramesh and Aalbersberg, William (2014). Production and purification of a bioactive substance against multi-drug resistant human pathogens from the marine-sponge-derived Salinispora sp.. Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine, 4 (10), 825-831. doi: 10.12980/APJTB.4.2014C1154
Plisson,Fabien, Prasad, Pritesh, Xiao, Xue, Piggott, Andrew M., Huang, Xiao-cong, Khalil, Zeinab and Capon, Robert J. (2014). Callyspongisines A-D: Bromopyrrole alkaloids from an Australian marine sponge, Callyspongia sp.. Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, 12 (10), 1579-1584. doi: 10.1039/c4ob00091a
Subramani, Ramesh, Kumar, Rohitesh, Prasad, Pritesh and Aalbersberg, William (2013). Cytotoxic and antibacterial substances against multi-drug resistant pathogens from marine sponge symbiont: Citrinin, a secondary metabolite of Penicillium sp.. Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine, 3 (4), 291-296. doi: 10.1016/S2221-1691(13)60065-9
Prasad, Pritesh, Aalbersberg, William, Feussner, Klaus-D. and Van Wagoner, Ryan M. (2011). Papuamides E and F, cytotoxic depsipeptides from the marine sponge Melophlus sp.. Tetrahedron, 67 (44), 8529-8531. doi: 10.1016/j.tet.2011.08.100

Conference Papers

Dewapriya, Pradeep, Khalil, Zeinab G., Prasad, Pritesh, Salim, Angela A., Morales, Pablo C., Marcellin, Esteban and Capon, Robert J. (2018). Talaropeptides A–D: Structure and biosynthesis of extensively N-methylated linear peptides from an Australian marine tunicate-derived Talaromyces sp.. American Society of Pharmacognosy Annual Meeting ASP 2018, Lexington, KY United States, 21-25 July 2018.
Dewapriya, Pradeep, Prasad, Pritesh, Damodar, Rakesh, Salim, Angela A. and Capon, Robert J. (2017). Talarolide A, a cyclic heptapeptide hydroxamate from an Australian marine tunicate-associated fungus, Talaromyces sp.. 2nd International Conference of Marine Fungal Natural Products, Kiel, Germany, 27-29 June 2017.
Dewapriya, Pradeep, Prasad, Pritesh, Khalil, Zeinab G. and Capon, Robert J. (2017). 2D C3 Marfey’s method for amino acid analysis and structure elucidation in peptidic natural products. Queensland Annual Chemistry Symposium, Brisbane, Australia, 27 November 2017.

Thesis

Prasad, Pritesh (2017). Marine biodiversity: exploring bioactive chemical space. PhD Thesis, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/uql.2017.724

Research Reports

Thompson, Kristie, Shiels, Ryan, Li, Yan, Paxman, Chris, Elisei, Gabriele, Prasad, Pritesh, Carswell, Christina, Gallen, Michael, Reeks, Tim, Xia, Summer, Mueller, Jochen and Kaserzon, Sarit (2023). Catchment and Drinking Water Quality Micro Pollutant Monitoring Program – Passive Sampling Report 19 – Winter 2023. Brisbane, QLD Australia: Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS), UQ.
Kaserzon, Sarit, Shiels, Ryan, Elisei, Gabriele, Li, Yan, Carswell, Christina, Xia, Summer, Prasad, Pritesh, Gallen, Michael, Reeks, Tim, Thompson, Kristie, Taucare, Grechel, Marano, Kirsty, Sara Ghorbani Gorji, Mueller, Jochen, Prazeres, Martina and Walker, Kaye (2023). Pesticide analysis for the inshore Great Barrier Reef Marine Monitoring Program (MMP). Brisbane, QLD Australia:
Kaserzon, Sarit, Shiels, Ryan, Li, Yan, Paxman, Chris, Elisei, Gabriele, Prasad, Pritesh, Carswell, Christina, Gallen, Michael, Reeks, Tim, Bowman, Jasper, Xia, Summer, Schulze, Bastian, Beggs, Carly and Mueller, Jochen (2023). Catchment and Drinking Water Quality Micro Pollutant Monitoring Program – Passive Sampling Report 18 – Summer 2023. Brisbane, QLD Australia: Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS).
Kaserzon, Sarit, Shiels, Ryan, Li, Yan, Paxman, Chris, Elisei, Gabriele, Prasad, Pritesh, Carswell, Christina, Gallen, Michael, Reeks, Tim, Bowman, Jasper, Cheneval, Olivier, Jeon, Youngjoon, Schulze, Bastian, Beggs, Carly and Mueller, Jochen (2022). Catchment and drinking water quality micro pollutant monitoring program – passive sampling report 16 – summer 2022. Brisbane, QLD Australia: Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences.
Kaserzon, Sarit, Shiels, Ryan, Li, Yan, Paxman, Chris, Elisei, Gabriele, Prasad, Pritesh, Carswell, Christina, Gallen, Michael, Reeks, Tim, Bowman, Jasper, Xia, Summer, Schulze, Bastian, Thompson, Kristie and Mueller, Jochen (2022). Catchment and drinking water quality micro pollutant monitoring program – passive sampling report 17 – winter 2022. Brisbane, QLD, Australia: Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences.
Jayarathne, Ayomi, Lal, Vincent, Beggs, Carly, Kaserzon, Sarit, Prasad, Pritesh, Wang, Fisher, He, Chang and Mueller, Jochen (2021). GEF-funded project “Continuing Regional Support for the POPs Global Monitoring Plan under the Stockholm Convention” in the Pacific Region (GEF ID 4894) - Substantive Report. Brisbane, Australia: Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences .
Tscharke, Ben, Shiels, Ryan, Mackie, Rachel, Gorji, Sara, Prasad, Pritesh, Carswell, Christina, Teimouri, Homa, Cheneval, Olivier and Kaserzon, Sarit (2021). Passive sampling for Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) at Brisbane Airport. Brisbane, Australia: Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences.
Yeh, Ruby Yu-Lu, Thompson, Kristie, Paxman, Chris, Gallen, Christie, Elisei, Gabriele, Prasad, Pritesh, Verhagen, Rory, Vijayasarathy, Soumini, Gallen, Michael, Reeks, Tim, Jiang, Hui, Eaglesham, Geoff, Mueller, Jochen and Kaserzon, Sarit (2018). Catchment and Drinking Water Quality Micro Pollutant Monitoring program – Passive Sampling. Report 9 – Winter 2018. Woolloongabba, QLD Australia: Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences.
Kaserzon, Sarit, Yeh, Ruby Yu-Lu, Thompson, Kristie, Paxman, Chris, Gallen, Christie, Elisei, Gabriele, Prasad, Pritesh, Schacht, Veronika, Van Niekerk, Sean, Verhagen, Rory, Vijayasarathy, Soumini, Gallen, Michael, Reeks, Tim, Jiang, Hui, Eaglesham, Geoff and Mueller, Jochen (2018). Catchment and Drinking Water Quality Micro Pollutant Monitoring Program – Passive Sampling Report 8 – Summer 2018. Ipswich, QLD, Australia: Seqwater.