The Center for Arab Genomic Studies (CAGS), held yesterday, Wednesday, June 8, 2022, a webinar, which discussed " Lysosomal Storage Disorders (LSDs)".
LSDs are a type of inborn errors of metabolism and include a group of about 50 rare and genetic disorders such as Gaucher disease, Niemann-pick disease, Pompe disease, and Tay-Sachs disease.
The webinar, sponsored in-part by Sanofi, was attended by more than 300 participants from all over the world, and featured distinguished doctors and researchers in the field of genetics who shared their most recent studies with the participants.
The webinar hosted a talk by Prof. Huseyin Onay, Founder MULTiGEN Biotech, Turkey. In his talk, prof. Onay discussed the Genetics of Lysosomal Storage Disorders, specifically mucopolysacharidosis, and Gaucher, Gabry and Pompe diseases Prof. Ahmed Alfares, Medical Consultant, King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre was the other speaker at the webinar who discussed variant analysis and interpretation of lysosomal storage diseases, with pompe disease as an example.
The webinar was moderated by Dr Stephany El-Hayek, Assistant Director of CAGS, and featured a short video highlighting CTGA, the genetic database that the Centre maintains.
Dr Mahmoud Taleb Al Ali, Director of CAGS, said, " As we showed in the short video, CTGA currently holds data on 48 LSDs, 31 of which have been described in the UAE in association with 27 genes. Some of these are reported exclusively in CTGA and are absent from other international genetic databases, which speaks to the value of our database for clinicians and geneticists dealing with Emirati and Arab patients".
For his part, His Excellency Abdullah bin Souqat, Executive Director of the Hamdan Medical Award, praised the scientific value of the webinar and the richness of discussions that took place, which greatly contribute to exchanging the latest developments in the field of human genetics, ultimately leading to the advancement of the health sector, both inside and outside the UAE.
