Savannah Mwesigwa

SSavannah Mwesigwa is a research fellow at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, where he also completed his PhD. His doctoral research focused on genetic factors influencing HIV disease progression in a paediatric African cohort using whole exome sequencing (WES). The cohort included long-term non-progressors (LTNP), a subset of children born with HIV who take more than ten years to progress to AIDS.

In his work, he applied an unconventional approach by analysing “off-target” reads from WES data that map to viral DNA, allowing him to investigate co-infecting viruses and their relationship with HIV disease progression. His findings suggested an association between co-infection with viruses such as members of the Anelloviridae family and LTNP status, highlighting their potential as biomarkers of immune control or disease progression.

In his postdoctoral research, he continues working with the same paediatric cohort, focusing on the role of mitochondrial genetics in HIV disease progression in children.