Leon Mutesa, MD, PhD

Country Principal Investigator

Dr. Leon Mutesa is the Country Principal Investigator for CA-IeDEA in Rwanda based at Research for Development (RD Rwanda), providing leadership and management for the program. His infectious diseases work especially HIV includes mentoring investigators on HPV testing in long-term stored cervical specimens from women living with HIV, and epigenetic mechanisms and cervical cancer progression in this population.

He is a full Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Rwanda and Senior Director of Research Leadership at RD Rwanda, where he leads various research groups on infectious diseases (HIV, malaria, etc.), genomics/genetics, and epigenetics. Dr. Mutesa earned his MD from the University of Rwanda and he completed his PhD and post-doctoral tranining at the University of Liège, Belgium. He earned a Fellowship of African Academy of Sciences (FAAS) in 2025 and the Human Genome Organization (HUGO) African Prize 2024.