Representatives of the Center for Arab Genomics Studies, a subdivision of the Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences, have returned to the UAE after attending the 22nd Human Genome Meeting held in Yokohama, Japan. The meeting was organized by the Human Genome Organization (HUGO International).

HUGO and CAGS have shared a prolific relationship since the Center’s formative years. HUGO has supported the 1st Pan Arab Human Genetics Conference, which takes place every two years and is attended by a multinational group of geneticists.

Dr. Mahmoud Taleb Al Ali, Director of CAGS, stated that the collaboration between HUGO and CAGS was made possible under the determination of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Minister of Finance, and President of the Dubai Health Authority to make collaboration with worldwide organizations possible, as part of the greater goal of continual scientific progress and development nationally and globally.

Dr. Al Ali also stressed the importance of participating in these events in an effort to fulfil one of the UAE’s top priorities, and that is to improve the quality of healthcare services in the country.

This year’s Human Genome Meeting was presided over by Dr. Charles Lee, the current president of HUGO, and saw a rich program spread over 4 days under the theme ‘Genome Data and Health’. The three primary lectures focused on therapeutic implications in research on genetic disorders, while others discussed cancer genomics, biobanking, personalized medicine and single cell biology.

The 15th Human Genome Meeting took place in Dubai in 2011, in conjunction with the 4th Pan Arab Human Genetics Conference, which was organized by CAGS. Several of HUGO’s past presidents participated in that year’s Pan Arab conference. Simultaneously, a team of geneticists at CAGS had attended that year’s Human Genome Meeting, as they have done in previous years.