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Tribune News Network
Doha
SIDRA Medical and Research Center (Sidra) will address one of the most challenging questions in science when it holds its second Functional Genomics symposium on December 12 and 14, 2016, on the question of 'nature versus nurture'.
This year's Functional Genomics symposium is being hosted in collaboration with Nature Genetics, an internationally-recognised and high impact scientific journal on genetic research. It builds on the success of last year's symposium, as Sidra's Research Branch continues to lay the groundwork for improved healthcare outcomes in Qatar.
Functional Genomics, the theme of the symposium, is the study of how genomic and epigenetic components function, interaction, and, ultimately programme the pathophysiological process which explains what makes each person who he or she is. It allows researchers to account for how our genetic make-up influences health or disease.
Alongside genetic traits, external factors life experience, nutrition and the environment diet play a role in determining the diseases to which people are predisposed. By understanding how genes function, including their mutations, scientists and clinicians can better understand how to treat or cure human genetic diseases.
There is a vast difference between understanding how a gene functions versus merely knowing that a mutation exists, as Sidra's Chief Research Officer Dr Francesco Marincola explained.
"Understanding how genes function and what genetic defects an individual has, allows the research and medical community to target the appropriate treatment for a given patient. This is the essence of precision, or personalised, medicine. Our goal in Qatar is to advance genomic research and nurture the knowledge sharing with our local and international partners which will lead to treatments and cures for the most prevalent diseases and conditions affecting the local population."
Attendees will learn about the real-life cures emerging from functional genomics research as world-renowned scientists and clinicians present state-of-the-art scientific discoveries addressing the interactions between nature and nurture and their impact on health. The symposium will also address how these interactions are tackled and implemented in health care. A one day on-site training on new technologies and analysis tools will be hosted at Sidra following the two-day symposium.
An exhibition from leading technology and service providers, including F1000, a publishing platform for life scientists and clinicians, will run in parallel with the symposium presentations.
Several principal investigators and geneticists from Sidra will be presenting at the symposium including Dr Wei Liu, Dr Bernice Lo and Dr Khalid A Fakhro. Dr Asma al Thani, chair of the Qatar Genome Programme Committee and vice chairperson of Qatar Biobank, will address the link between the Qatar Genome Programme (QGP) and precision medicine.
Dr Ronald Cristal and Lotfi Chouchane from Weill Cornell Medicine - Qatar will present a genetic cohort study on the Qatari population. International speakers include Dr Catalina Lopez-Correa, the chief scientific officer for the Genome British Columbia project from Canada; Dr Francesco Cucca, director of the Institute for Genetics and Biomedical Research from the University of Sassari, Italy; and Dr Mark M Davis, family professor from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology from Stanford School of Medicine.
