The Center of Arab Genomics Studies, a division of the Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences, announced the opening of the registration for the 7th PAHGC, which will be held from 18th to 20th January 2018 at the Conrad Hotel in Dubai.
Dr. Mahmoud Taleb Al-Ali, the Director of the Center for Arab Genomic Studies and the Chairperson of the Scientific Committee of the conference, said the theme of the conference in its seventh edition is The Omics Era (mainly aimed at scientific detection of genes, proteins and metabolism in a specific biological sample). He also reviewed the main topics to be discussed in the conference; Precision Medicine, Big Data in Human Genetics, Genomics of Multifactorial Disorders, as well as the Current Trends in Human Genetics including Genome Editing, Human Microbiome, and Metabolomics.
Through lectures by researchers, it is worth mentioning that the conference includes a group of leading researchers and scientists from all over the world specializing in each of these areas. Keynote speakers at the conference include Prof. Fowzan Alkuraya, Professor of Human Genetics at the Alfaisal University and the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, and Prof. Karsten Suhre, Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, and Director of the Bioinformatics Virtual Metabolomics Core at the Weill Corniell Medical College in Qatar.
Dr. Mahmoud added that the last day of the conference will be devoted to workshops. The first one of these workshops, on "Genetic counselling for Arab populations", will be useful for pediatricians, obstetricians, medical students and nurses. Cases of families with genetic diseases will be presented and discussed during this workshop.
The second workshop, on “Genetic variation and gene regulation”, will be provided by Ensembl and is aimed at laboratory researchers, students and biotechnologists and will offer participants the possibility of gaining hands-on experience in the use of the Ensembl genome browser.
HE Dr. Ahmed Al Hashemi, Member of the Board of Trustees of the Award, praised the success of the previous versions of the conference, which attracted researchers and specialists in genetics not only at the local level but also at the regional and international levels. For example, the previous version included more than 400 researchers and specialists who came from 24 countries, in addition to the presence of many students from various universities from within the UAE and abroad.
The conference allows researchers and geneticists from within the Arab World not only to network and forge collaborations with each other, but also to review and exchange information with the broader international community. It also provides constructive cooperation between the various scientists in the field of human genetics in the Arab world, which ultimately helps to promote scientific research in the Arab world.
Online registrations to the conference can be accessed through the conference website at www.pahgc.org.
