Leon Mutesa

Prof. Leon Mutesa is Director of Center for Human Genetics at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences University of Rwanda. He obtained his MD from the university of Rwanda in 2003 and his PhD in 2009 from the University of Liege-Belgium where he also completed his Post-Doc in 2011. Throughout his career he has been immensely involved in clinical services, academics, research, capacity building, and management in the health sector. Since starting his genetic career, Prof. Mutesa has pioneered new developments and implementation of a Reference Centre for Medical Genetics in Rwanda, which is the only one in the East African Region. Currently, he is coordinating Rwandan Task Force for COVID-19 laboratory testing under WHO consultancy. Since the COVID-19 outbreak in Rwanda, Dr Mutesa and his research group have implemented various research projects aiming at building human capacity for SARS-CoV-2 laboratory diagnostic and management. Together with his group they have recently published a Nature’s paper on pooling testing strategy (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2885-5 ) which shows a cost-saving approach for better use of SARS-CoV-2 limited testing resources.