(MENAFN- The Peninsula) H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson, Qatar Foundation, officially opened Qatar Biobank's new state-of-the-art facility at Hamad Bin Khalifa Medical City at Building 17.
She was accompanied by Minister of Public Health and Secretary-General, Supreme Council of Health H E Abdullah bin Khalid Al Qahtani, Dr Hanan Al Kuwari, Chairperson, Qatar Biobank Board of Trustees, and Dr Asma Al Thani, Vice-Chairperson, Qatar Biobank Board of Trustees.
The opening, on the second day of Qatar's inaugural conference 'Biobanking in the context of personalised healthcare' hosted by Qatar Biobank, comprised a comprehensive tour of the new facility to showcase services Qatar Biobank provides its participants.
"Biobanking is one of the great healthcare opportunities of our time. Thanks to the visionary leadership of H H Sheikha Moza, Qatar Biobank has established itself as the most ambitious of its kind in the region. Data from our volunteers will be used to help understand how lifestyle, the environment and genes affect health locally and will play a critical role in helping develop treatments and preventing diseases for the health of future generations," said Dr Al Kuwari.
Sheikha Moza also visited Hamad Medical Corporation's (HMC) Interim Translational Research Institute (iTRI) to learn more about its innovative scientific and clinical research programmes. She reviewed the importance of iTRI in nurturing research and enabling translation of scientific discoveries to aid the development of new medicines, technologies and treatments for better patient outcomes.
The inauguration of the Qatar Biobank building follows Qatar Biobank's two-year operational pilot phase, the results of which shed light on findings relevant to the local community, including the fact that 76 percent of male and 70 percent of female participants, from a sample of 1,200, are either overweight or obese.
Announced by Sheikha Moza at the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) in Doha 2013, the Qatar Genome Project, a genome mapping of the local population spearheaded by Qatar Biobank, signifies a notable change in future treatment through personalised healthcare.
Qatar Biobank's collection of samples and information on the health and lifestyles of a large number of the population makes vital medical research possible for scientists in Qatar, the region and the world.
With plans to initially collect samples from more than 60,000 participants from the local population, Qataris or people who have lived in Qatar for over 15 years are eligible to participate and contribute samples. Contribution involves attending an assessment session at Qatar Biobank clinic that lasts less than three hours, and comprises measurements, including an individual's height, weight, blood pressure, and blood, urine and saliva samples. The health information obtained from medical records, DNA, lifestyle, and environmental exposures has the potential to provide further insights into the management and prevention of debilitating diseases common in Qatar.
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