Naasson Tuyiringire

EDUCATION:

• March 2008: Bachelor of Science in Chemistry obtained at National University of Rwanda
• September 2013: Master of Science in Molecular Biology (Option: Human Health) obtained at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) – Etterbeek (Belgium)
• October 2017-To date:  Ph.D. Student of a Joint Ph.D. program:
  1. Pharmaceutical Sciences, the Department of Analytical Chemistry, Applied Chemometrics and Molecular Modelling (FABI), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) - Jette (Belgium).
  2. Pharmacy, the Department of Pharmacy, Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) – Mbarara (Uganda). 

RESEARCH TOPICS:

• Antimycobacterial activity of Medicinal Plants, C. sanguinolenta, L. camara, Z. leprieurii.
• Identification of active ingredients/compounds of Antimycobacterial Medicinal Plants and their mechanisms of action by exploration of untargeted metabolic fingerprints of mycobacterial cell cultures and the extracts of medicinal plants. 

RESEARCH PROJECT:

My research work focuses on the study of some antimycobacterial medicinal plants. The objectives of the study are: 1) determination of the activity of medicinal plants, C. sanguinolenta, L. camara, Z. leprieurii against mycobacteria, 2) exploration of untargeted metabolic fingerprints of culture cells of mycobacteria treated with extract of a medicinal plant to identify the affected metabolites and metabolic pathways, and 3) exploration of untargeted metabolic fingerprints of medicinal plants and to identify the active ingredients/compounds. 

Untargeted metabolic fingerprints are acquired using ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometric detection (UHPLC-MS). The analysis of the data is performed using un/targeted multivariate analysis. Principal component analysis (PCA) and Partial Least Square Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) are performed to visualize, classify, and discriminate distinct groups of mycobacteria cell cultures samples. Partial least square regression (PLSR) models the antimycobacterial activity of medicinal plants and allows to identify the active ingredients/compounds.