Two-day genetics conference opens in Bahrain

Manama :President of the Supreme Council of Health (SCH), Lieutenant General Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa opened the first conference on “Human Genetics, Epigenetics, and Personalised Genomics,” in the Arab world, yesterday.

The event is organised by the Princess Al Jawhara Al Ibrahim Centre for Molecular Medicine and Inherited Disorders at the Arabian Gulf University (AGU), in cooperation with the Federation of Arab Scientific Research Council.

Opening the conference, in the presence of AGU President, Dr. Khalid Abdul Rahman Al-Ohaly, diplomatic corps, as well as health sector’s officials, academics and staff, the SCH president said that the conference is in line with the SCH’s support for innovative health sciences that drastically treat genetic diseases that face the Bahraini society.He highlighted the importance of AGU’s academic and research potentials, noting that the regional and international conferences organised by AGU provide a platform to transfer the latest expertise and research to Bahrain and the Arabian Gulf.

He said that the Kingdom supports all scientific efforts in the fields of human genetics, epigenetics, and personalised genomics, given their importance in understanding the genetic and environmental features of every society to deal with them on a preventive basis that contributes to achieving health welfare, in accordance with the Economic Vision for Bahrain, 2030.

The two-day conference has attracted 150 experts from the US, New Zealand, Canada and Japan as well as various Arab countries. 

The conference will shed light on “Epigenetics” and its role in the interaction between genes and diet in the development of chronic diseases, for the first time in the Arab world.