Dubai, 20 January 2018. In conjunction with the 7th Pan Arab human Genetics Conference, two parallel closed-door workshops discussing current issues in human genetics pertaining to the Arab World, were held.

The first of these, on challenges facing genetic counseling in the Arab World, was provided by Sonika Sachanandani from the Vlaiant Clinic, Dubai,  Dr. Alya Qari from King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, KSA, and Dr. Hinda Daggag from the Imperial College London Diabetes Centre, Abu Dhabi. More than 20 doctors and students attended this workshop, where they discussed the importance of genetic counseling and cases that posed challenges to counseling. The second workshop was organized by Ensembl and gave participants a hands-on experience of using the Ensembl browser to study genetic regulation and variation. This workshop was provided by Dr. Emily Perry and Dr. Erin Haskell and was aimed at students and researchers interested in biotechnology.

Professor Najeeb Al-Khaja, Secretary-General of the Award, and President of the Centre for Arab Genomic Studies, sad that he was satisfied with the success of the conference, and that he was pleased to see the conference continuing its tradition of creating a debate and interaction between Arab geneticist.

He also spoke about the past 15 years of the Center since 2003, and the achievements that have been made. He also mentioned the challenges, especially in the Arab world..

At the closing ceremony of the conference, HE Abdullah bin Sougat, Executive Director of the Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Award for Medical Sciences thanked  everyone, and spoke about the success of the conference. He mentioned that the positive feedback from the invited guests, which are the leading genetic scientists, gave him hope that they would be ready to cooperate with the center in future activities.

He also praised the strategy for the work of CAGS, which aims to expand the activities of the Center and its implementation in the coming years to keep pace with the remarkable increase in the scientific research output of human genetics at the level of Arab countries.

Dr. Mahmoud Taleb Al Ali, Director of CAGS and Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the Conference, said that the conference was a great time for scientists to exchange researches and talk about results regarding the human genetic disorders, and it was a good opportunity for discussing the latest results

It was hard for the judges to choose the winner, since all of them gave great prentations and researches, but the winner award was giving by Dr. Mahmoud Hashim, Dr. Al-Saffar, Dr. Shafiq and Dr. Soha Yazbek.

to add some entertainment the conference created an awareness gaming part, which was interesting since it can make participants join and communicate more.