The National Research Repository of Uganda - NRU

Welcome to the National Research Repository of Uganda, abbreviated as "NRU". NRU was established in 2021. NRU is a collection of scholarly output by researchers from the UNCST Community, including scholarly articles and books, electronic theses and dissertations, conference proceedings, journals, technical reports and digitised library collections. It is the official Institutional Archive (IA) of UNCST.

Copyright Information:

For information about the publishers' copyright policy on archiving your articles online or in an institutional archive, visit the Sherpa Site at http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo.php The site gives a summary of the permissions normally given as part of each publisher's copyright transfer agreement. If you wish to publish your research findings in the NRU, please contact NRU administrator at admin@uncst.go.ug for details. NRU operates both open access and closed access models. Access to fulltext has been restricted in adherence to the UNCST Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and Copyrights policies.

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Africa Portal is an online repository of open access library collection with over 3,000 books, journals, and digital documents on African policy issues. This is an initiative by the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), Makerere University (MAK), and the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA). Please visit the Africa Portal at http://www.africaportal.org/library.

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Now showing 1 - 5 of 10

Recent Submissions

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    Gene editing applications, opportunities and challenges for crop improvement in Africa a review
    (Springer International Publishing, 2026-09-22)
    Mequanint, Gebremeskel;
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    Kuru, Birkneh;
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    Wondmaneh, Adane
    Gene editing, particularly CRISPR/Cas-based new genomic techniques (NGTs), offers significant opportunities for accelerated crop improvement in developing African countries, ensuring food security, livelihoods, climate resilience, and economic growth. This review critically evaluates the scientific basis, applications, breeding value, technical capacity, and regulatory developments of gene editing in major African crops. Recent evidence shows that it has shown significant progress in improving disease resistance, nutrient use efficiency, climate resilience, grain quality, and yield traits in teff, maize, wheat, banana, cassava, and sorghum and other important crops with active research in Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, South Africa, and Ethiopia. Key findings highlights CRISPR/Cas9 remains the dominant editing platform, while base editing, prime editing, and multiplex genome engineering are expanding opportunities for precise trait modification in major and orphan crops. Evidence to date shows measurable gains include improved resistance to banana Xanthomonas wilt through MusaDMR6 editing, enhanced cassava disease resistance, and drought-tolerant ARGOS8-edited maize. However, most African gene-editing pipelines remain at pre-release or at reserach stage because of limited transformation and phenotyping capacity, fragmented regulatory implementation, inadequate funding, and social and institutional constraints and weak seed-delivery systems. Compared with product-based regulatory approaches in Argentina, Brazil, Japan, and the United Kingdom, African framework remains less harmonized and enabling. Future priorities focus on harmonizing SDN-1/SDN-2 regulatory pathways, participatory public engagement mechanisms, strengthening biosafety and research infrastructure, applying AI-assisted guide RNA design, pangenomics, machine learning, epigenome editing, and de novo domestication, and expanding research on orphan crops such as finger millet, cowpea, and enset that underpin food security but remain under-researched. By focusing on crop-specific examples and well-documented breeding targets, this review aims to provide a scientifically grounded perspective on how gene editing can complement conventional and emerging precision breeding approaches to support sustainable and climate-resilient agriculture in Africa. Agricultural Science Database
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    Spectrum and immunovirological determinants of tumours among people living with HIV in Uganda: A retrospective cross sectional study from a specialised HIV centre, 2017–2026
    (Public Library of Science, 2026-09-22)
    Mwaka, Joseph;
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    Sserunjogi, Conrad;
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    Natalayi, Jesca
    Sub-Saharan Africa carries a disproportionate burden of HIV-associated malignancies. The contemporary tumour spectrum in the dolutegravir (DTG) era remains incompletely characterised in East African routine HIV-care settings. The immunovirological context at the time of cancer or benign tumor diagnosis is similarly under-described. We sought to describe the spectrum, malignant fraction, and immunovirological correlates of neoplasms diagnosed at a specialised HIV centre in Kampala, Uganda. We conducted a retrospective, cross-sectional analysis of 219 tumour records identified within the longitudinal clinical cohort of people living with HIV (PLHIV) in continuous care at Mildmay Hospital, contributed by 216 individual patients (three of whom each had two separate tumour diagnoses on different dates) between November 2017 and January 2026. Tumours were classified by ICD-10 disease group and malignancy status (benign/malignant). Bivariate associations with malignancy status were tested using χ² or Fisher exact tests for categorical variables and Mann-Whitney U tests for continuous variables (two-sided α = 0.05), with Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate (FDR) correction applied across each panel of comparisons given the number of variables tested. Crude odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were computed for dichotomous comparisons. A sensitivity analysis restricted to one tumour record per patient (n = 216) was performed to assess the influence of the three patients with two records each. The cohort had a median age of 47 years (IQR 39-54) and was 127/219 (58.0%) female. Overall, 138/219 tumours (63.0%) were malignant. Kaposi sarcoma (KS) was the most frequently registered malignancy (n = 65; 47.1% of all malignant tumours; 29.7% of the full cohort). Among 155 records with viral load data, 133 (85.8%) were virally suppressed at tumour diagnosis, yet 70/133 (52.6%) of those suppressed records were malignant. Advanced WHO clinical stage (III/IV) at ART initiation was associated with malignant diagnosis (OR 3.51, 95% CI 1.54-8.81; FDR-adjusted p = 0.003). Median CD4 at ART initiation was lower among malignant compared with benign tumour records (147 vs 476 cells/µL; FDR-adjusted p = 0.001), and median ART duration before diagnosis was shorter (37 vs 101 months; FDR-adjusted p < 0.001). Restricting the analysis to KS versus other malignancies only (n = 138), KS patients had lower CD4 at ART initiation (136 vs 171 cells/µL, p = 0.079) and markedly shorter ART duration before diagnosis (4 vs 63 months, p < 0.001) than patients with other malignancies. All associations were materially unchanged in the patient-level sensitivity analysis. HIV-associated tumours in this Ugandan cohort remain predominantly malignant and are dominated by KS despite high viral suppression rates. Malignancy clusters among patients with low pre-ART CD4 counts, advanced WHO stage, and short ART duration, though these are unadjusted, hypothesis-generating comparisons rather than evidence of causal or temporal gradients. These data establish the analytic platform for a prospective HIV-oncology cohort at Mildmay Hospital and Mildmay Research Centre and inform context-appropriate cancer screening priorities. MEDLINE
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    A qualitative study on fertility preferences and barriers to fertility autonomy in rural Uganda among women with an unmet need for family planning
    (Taylor & Francis Group, 2026-02-25)
    Luttinen, Rebecca L.;
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    Muhumuza, Christine;
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    Kiene, Susan M. ;
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    Wanyenze, Rhoda K.;
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    Kershaw, Trace S.;
    Women's autonomy in fertility decision-making is essential for improved health and social outcomes. Guided by the social-ecological model, this investigation explores multilevel influences on the fertility autonomy of women with an unmet need for family planning in rural Uganda. We conducted four focus groups with men and women (  = 26), and 15 key informant interviews with community leaders and individuals involved in the provision of family planning. The data were analyzed thematically. The results highlight how community-level norms reinforce gender inequalities in decision-making and underpin beliefs to not limit men's number of children. Religious norms and polygamy practices were shown to influence attitudes towards family size and family planning, as well as shape relationship dynamics related to fertility. Concerns about poverty were identified as a driver of shifting preferences and increasing acceptance of family planning. Results showcase how health system weaknesses limit women's access to family planning services, contribute to mistrust of health systems and drive misinformation about contraceptives, especially among men. This study underscores the need for multifaceted gender transformative interventions to increase women's fertility autonomy. This study also highlights health system strengthening, religious leader endorsement and male engagement as approaches to increase women's autonomous use of family planning. PubMed
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    12th ANREC proceedings (full report)
    (Uganda National Council for Science and Technology, 2025-10-20)
    Uganda National Council for Science and Technology
    These proceedings document presentations, panel discussions, keynote addresses, case studies, and stakeholder engagements from the 12th Annual National Research Ethics Conference (ANREC), held on 21-22 October 2025 in Kampala, Uganda. The conference explored the theme "Communities as Partners: Strengthening Community Engagement in Research" and examined ethical, regulatory, and practical dimensions of community participation in research. Key discussions addressed evolving global and national research ethics frameworks, updates to the Declaration of Helsinki, revised Ugandan research guidelines, post-research responsibilities, ethical challenges in controlled human infection studies, adaptive trial designs, emergency and outbreak research, animal welfare, traditional and alternative medicine research, gene therapy, artificial intelligence, data ownership, and intellectual property rights. Participants emphasized the importance of collaborative partnerships between researchers and communities, equitable benefit-sharing, inclusive research governance, culturally responsive research methods, and accountability throughout the research lifecycle. The proceedings further highlight lessons learned from community engagement initiatives, vaccine trials, public health emergencies, and emerging research technologies, while providing recommendations for strengthening ethical oversight, participant protection, and sustainable research systems in Uganda and the region.
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    12th ANREC proceedings (summary)
    (Uganda National Council for Science and Technology, 2025-10-21)
    Uganda National Council for Science and Technology
    .The 12th Annual National Research Ethics Conference (ANREC), organized by the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST), was held on 21-22 October 2025 in Kampala, Uganda, under the theme "Communities as Partners: Strengthening Community Engagement in Research." The conference brought together 706 participants from Uganda and the region to discuss contemporary ethical issues in human and animal research. Deliberations emphasized community engagement as a fundamental pillar of ethical, inclusive, and responsive research, advocating a shift from conducting research on communities to conducting research with communities. Major discussions focused on post-research responsibilities, post-trial access, ethical challenges in emergency and outbreak research, social and behavioral research ethics, traditional and alternative medicine research, animal welfare, emerging technologies, adaptive clinical trial designs, and community-centered research governance. The conference highlighted the need for meaningful community participation throughout the research lifecycle, strengthened ethical and regulatory frameworks, equitable benefit-sharing, accountability in dissemination of research findings, and alignment with the revised Declaration of Helsinki. Recommendations called for institutionalizing community engagement, strengthening post-research obligations, enhancing ethical oversight, promoting indigenous knowledge systems, and advancing equitable research partnerships to improve research quality, trust, and public benefi