Sadia TINA

Sadia Tina is originally from Mali and is a BRAINS scholarship awardee. He is a PhD candidate in Pharmacology, developing advanced skills in pharmaceutical research and the analysis of bioactive compounds.

At RIRCA, Sadia’s work focuses on investigating the biological potential of medicinal plant extracts from Morocco and his home country, Mali, through an integrated experimental and computational approach. His project begins with evaluating the cytotoxicity of crude plant extracts on THP-1 and HUVEC cell lines to ensure their safety, before assessing their ability to reduce oxidative stress in placental cells and to promote angiogenesis through in vitro assays. From there he will identify and quantify the active compounds using HPLC and GC-MS analysis. Finally, Sadia will apply bioinformatics tools to predict how these compounds interact with relevant molecular targets and receptors, working to understand the mechanisms behind their effects.

What Sadia is most proud of is contributing to transforming ancestral knowledge into scientifically validated evidence. Medicinal plants are widely used across many societies based on tradition, often without rigorous scientific support. He aims to bridge that gap – providing solid experimental and analytical data that can confirm, explain, and potentially optimise these traditional practices.