Dubai-13th Jan 2019: The Centre for Arab Genomic Studies, a division of Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical sciences, published the 5th edition of Genetic Disorders in the Arab World (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia). The book provides an overview of medical genetic services in Saudi Arabia, as well as the major Mendelian disorders affecting the Saudi populatin. Moreover, the book highlights the importance of Islamic Bioethics in the context of medical genetics, as well as a Kingdom's profile in the Catalogue for Transmission Genetics in Arabs (CTGA) database, which the Centre maintains.

Dr. Mahmoud Taleb Al-Ali, director of the Centre, said that one of the major activities of CAGS has been to document the presence of genetic disorders and gene variants in Arab populations through the CTGA database. He added that data curation has so far been focused on the countries and populations in the GCC region, particularly UAE, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar. Data curation of genetic disorders and gene variants reported in the Saudi population was initiated in 2015 and the results of this study are available in the book's fifth chapter.

“The quantity of data available in KSA far exceeds that from any of the other countries surveyed so far, part of this has to do with the larger population size in KSA, and the research facilities available within the country.” He added

On his part, HE Abdullah bin Souqat the Executive Director of Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences, expressed gratitude to His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Minister of Finance and president of the Dubai Health Authority, the patron of the award for his continuous support and encouragement of all the activities of the Award in general and the activities of CAGS in particular. He also  thanked the authors of the book, especially the researchers in Saudi Arabia.