UAE's genome project will benefit the entire Arab world

Greater than 400,000 Emirati residents have volunteered up to now to present blood samples and DNA cheek swabs to scientists constructing a genetic map of the inhabitants. Getty

Subsequent month would be the twentieth anniversary of the Human Genome Challenge’s ground-breaking achievement in finishing your complete genetic blueprint for a human being. It was an occasion with profound implications, one which supplied the hope of understanding and finally curing lots of the genetic sicknesses that plague our species.

This week’s information that President Sheikh Mohamed and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, have been current on the unveiling of the UAE’s Nationwide Genome Technique demonstrates the significance the nation has positioned on creating this cutting-edge science, notably with regards to Arab populations.

The identical 12 months that the human genome was mapped, the Dubai-based Centre for Arab Genomic Research was established with the purpose of lowering the burden of genetic problems within the Arab world. Since then, it has constructed up an open-access database ‎of bibliographic information on human gene variants related to inherited or ‎heritable phenotypes in Arabs. Earlier this month, a analysis paper from the centre described 1,365 gene mutations reported in Emiratis, greater than half ‎of that are categorised as illness inflicting. Virtually a fifth of those haven't been ‎reported in worldwide genetic databases.

President Sheikh Mohamed and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, on the launch of the Nationwide Genome Technique in Qasr Al Watan, Abu Dhabi, with Sarah Al Amiri, Minister of State for Public Training and Future Know-how. Picture: Dubai Media Workplace

This information hole was addressed by Abdulla bin Souqat, govt director of the Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical ‎Sciences, who ‎pointed to the significance of ethnic databases such because the CTGA in addressing ‎the under-representation of Arab variant information in worldwide analysis.

What the Nationwide Genome Technique presents is an opportunity to shut this hole. Greater than 400,000 Emirati residents have volunteered up to now to present blood samples and DNA cheek swabs to scientists constructing a genetic map of the inhabitants, pointing to how a lot individuals worth the nation’s mission to develop personalised and preventive medication. It's a main milestone on the best way to the undertaking’s said purpose of amassing a million samples for examine.

The UAE inhabitants’s dimension presents researchers a manageable quantity to map, permitting scientists and docs to establish well being tendencies and dangers. Analyzing small populations can ship important info, such within the sparsely populated Orkney Islands off the north-east coast of Scotland the place a latest examine recognized a gene mutation that will increase the danger of breast and ovarian most cancers.

Such genetic understanding within the Arab world is significant. Based on analysis, genetic problems comparable to sickle cell anaemia, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency and fragile X syndrome are endemic. The British Medical Journal has carried information suggesting that “haemoglobin problems, inherited metabolic ailments, neurogenetic problems and start defects are frequent amongst Arab populations”.

The ten-year genome technique within the UAE will go hand in hand with the nation’s adoption of synthetic intelligence and different superior applied sciences. Upon completion, it won't solely profit the Emirati inhabitants however will supply a wealthy supply of knowledge for these researching the well being wants of Arab populations.

It phrases of scientific achievement, it's a speedy success story and one through which individuals are voluntarily sharing info that may profit future generations. Genetic mapping helps us perceive the place we now have come from, nevertheless it additionally presents us a transparent path to a more healthy future.