DrNetsanet Mengistu

Ass. Professor of Biochemistry, Public Health, and Infectious Diseases
My doctoral research was focused on drug discovery of an NTD named human African Trypanosomiasis using T. b. brucei (variant TC221) cell lines. Since most anti-trypanosomal drug research is related to anti-cancer research, I have also published a paper on the determination of the efficacy of selected local medicinal plants on some cancer cell lines and TC221 cells.
In 2014 the Tunisian Agency for Technical Cooperation (ATCT) and the Tunisian Institute of Pasteur (IPT) in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has also granted me a certificate of Training of Trainers in the “Follow-up Cooperation Program in the field of Research on Infectious Diseases”.
My future research interest will mainly be focused on research NTDs Teaching and Research; Implementation Research; research amalgamating malnutrition and infectious diseases progression; the role of vector microbiota for tropical infectious diseases (with a special focus on Leishmania, Malaria, Trypanosoma and Filariasis) control; Protease activity and Energy metabolism of parasitic protozoal organisms for drug discovery; Determination of the metabolic, biochemical and molecular insecticide resistance mechanisms among disease-transmitting vectors for the re-designing of vector management strategies; Diagnostic markers identification for trypanosome and leishmania parasites; Astrobiology related research on extraterrestrial microbes for the search of an innovative mechanism for drug discover/design and diagnostics for infectious diseases; interlinking energy metabolism in trypanosome and cancer cells for drug discovery, zoonotic and emerging/re-emerging NTDs research.
Currently I am also a member of the African Research Network for NTDs and a certified mentor for global students in coursera online academic platform (www.courser.com).