Petro Mnyagatwa
Petro Mnyagatwa is a Bioinformatician and Scientist who is currently pursuing a PhD in Bioinformatics at Vrije University (VU-Amsterdam), Netherlands. His PhD research, supported by a fully-funded scholarship from the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) on behalf of the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sport, focuses on detecting zoonotic pathogens from environmental DNA (eDNA) and source attribution using Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) and metagenomics approaches. He aims to develop bioinformatics pipelines for the early detection of emerging and re-emerging infectious pathogens, crucial for pandemic preparedness and timely-targeted interventions.
In 2020, Petro joined the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) as a Research Assistant, where he made significant contributions to various projects. Before joining NIMR, he began his career as a High School Laboratory Technician at Kagemu Secondary School in Bukoba. Concurrently, he worked as a Molecular Laboratory Scientist at Bukoba Regional Referral Hospital (BRRH), where he significantly contributed to the hospital’s molecular diagnostics capabilities. Petro holds an MSc in Bioinformatics from Wageningen University & Research (WUR), Netherlands, which he completed in 2023. He received a fully-funded scholarship in 2021 through the Orange Knowledge Programme (OKP), funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to support his studies. He also holds a BSc in Biotechnology and Laboratory Sciences from Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), graduating in 2018. Petro’s main research interests focus on the early and timely detection of infectious diseases, positioning him as a key figure in the proactive management of public health threats through advanced scientific methodologies