Speakers

International Speakers

Dr. Nara Sobreira

Associate Professor of McKusick-Nathans Department of Genetic Medicine
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Johns Hopkins University
United States

Dr. Nara Sobreira

Dr. Sobreira received her medical degree from the Pernambuco University’s School of Medicine in 2003. She completed a clinical genetics residency in Sao Paulo – Brazil (UNIFESP) before joining the Human Genetics graduate program at Johns Hopkins (2007 to 2012). This was followed by a one-year postdoc and a two-year clinical genetics fellowship at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She is board-certified by the Brazilian Board of Medical Genetics and the American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics. Her rigorous clinical training has equipped her to approach her scholarly work with an eye on important patient-related problems. After her clinical genetics fellowship at Hopkins, Dr. Sobreira was recruited to the Genetic Medicine faculty in 2015 where she is an associate professor. Her independent work has focused on the disease mechanisms of enchondromatoses.

She has also been instrumental in developing public genetic databases and genetic analytical tools that are highly valuable, widely used, promote disease gene identification, and facilitate collaborations. She participated in the development of PhenoDB and developed the PhenoDB analysis module, which is in use worldwide. Dr. Sobreira is one of the creators of GeneMatcher, the most widely used data-sharing platform for rare Mendelian diseases. In addition, she has championed the sharing of gene variant information in genomic databases by developing VariantMatcher.

Prof. Richard Sinnott

Professor, Applied Science & Director
Melbourne School of Engineering, Australia

Prof. Richard Sinnott

Prof Sinnott is the Director of the Melbourne eResearch Group (MeG - www.eresearch.unimelb.edu.au) and c at the University of Melbourne (2010-current). He has a BSc (Hons) in Theoretical Physics (UEA) (1988), a Master of Software Engineering (1993) and a PhD in Distributed Systems (1997). He did his post-doctoral work at GMD Fokus in Berlin (1997-2002). He was formerly Technical Director of the National e-Science Centre, UK (2002-2010), Director of e-Science at the University of Glasgow (2002-2010) and Technical Director of the Bioinformatics Research Centre (2004-2010) and the National Centre for e-Social Science in the UK (2009-2010).

His current role is in supporting research-oriented IT at the University of Melbourne. The MeG currently comprise 40 FTE with expertise across the software engineering spectrum all of whom are working on grants involving Prof Sinnott. He is involved in a wide array of research projects covering disciplines as diverse as the arts and humanities to zoology. He focuses especially on the biomedical domain, the defence domain, the intelligence domain and supporting research where big data, privacy and Cloud-based solutions are required. He has supervised 16 PhDs to completion and over 1000 Masters’ dissertations.

He has been international editor for numerous ITU-T/ISO standards related to distributed systems including ITU-T X.904. He has given over 200 invited talks/keynotes in the last 10 years. He has published over 450 peer-reviewed papers in conferences/journals across a wide range of computing science areas with specific focus over the last twenty years in supporting communities demanding finer-grained access control (security) and big data challenges.

Dr. Tamara Dangouloff

PhD, University of Liege
Liege, Belgium

Dr. Tamara Dangouloff

Tamara Dangouloff, a researcher in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Liège, has been awarded the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine prize for her doctoral thesis on newborn screening for spinal muscular atrophy in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. This work led to the launch of the Baby Detect project, which consists of screening at birth for more than 120 genetic diseases that appear in early childhood and for which there is an effective, reimbursed treatment or promising research in progress. Prior to this, she had been working for 15 years with sick children, first as a nurse specialised in children and then as head nurse in paediatrics.

Prof. Vasilis Vasiliou, PhD, Professor and Chair

Chair, Department of Environmental Health Sciences
Professor of the Environment and Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences
Yale Schools of Public Health / Medicine/ Environment
New Haven, United States

Prof. Vasilis Vasiliou, PhD, Professor and Chair

Dr. Vasilis Vasiliou is the Susan Dwight Bliss Professor and Chair of Environmental Health Sciences at the Yale School of Public Health, with joint appointments at the Yale Schools of Medicine and the Environment. A global leader in environmental health, he integrates genomics, exposomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics, and imaging mass spectrometry to investigate genome–exposome interactions and their contribution to human disease. He directs the NIH-funded Yale Superfund Research Center and a Center for Metabolomics and co-leads multiple NIH-funded training programs. Dr. Vasiliou also serves as Editor-in-Chief of Human Genomics and is spearheading the International Translational Exposome Network to advance global precision environmental health.

Dr. Laurent Servais

Professor of Pediatric Neuromuscular Diseases
University of Oxford, United Kingdom

Dr. Laurent Servais

Laurent Servais is Professor of Paediatric Neuromuscular Diseases at the University of Oxford in the UK, and invited Professor at the University of Liège in Belgium. He graduated in medicine and pediatrics from the University of Louvain (in Louvain-la-Neuve and Brussels in Belgium) then trained as a child neurologist in the Robert Debré Hospital in Paris, France, and as a myologist at the Institute of Myology, Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital, Paris.

Professor Servais’ main research interests cover innovative outcome measures and clinical trials design and newborn screening (NBS). He has been involved as Principal Investigator in several clinical trials in spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), Angelman Syndrome X-linked myotubular myopathy, and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), and in leading the NBS program for SMA NBS in Belgium and in the UK. He is the coordinating investigator of two large natural history studies in Angelman in the UK and in Belgium that aims to identify and validates innovative outcome measures and biomarkers.

Dr. Bruno Reversade

Professor & Director, KAUST,
Saudi Arabia.
Adjunct Professor, NUS, Singapore.
Distinguished Professor,
Koç University,
Turkey

Dr. Bruno Reversade

Bruno was trained as a developmental biologist at the HHMI in UCLA (USA). After his PhD, he was awarded the inaugural A*STAR investigatorship and set up his team at Genome Institute of Singapore. There, he switched to human genetics, placing emphasis on monogenic, fully penetrant and unique genetic traits as a means to understand complex and common diseases.

Combining the power of Mendelian genetics, patient-derived organoids, and animal modeling, his team has ascertained the aetiology of more than 50 orphaned human disorders affecting embryogenesis, metabolism, aging, cognition, immunity and familial cancers. Some of these discoveries have been licensed or are being developed for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.

Bruno is currently a Director and Professor at KAUST (Saudi Arabia). He is a fellow of the Branco Weiss (Switzerland) and National Research (Singapore) Foundations and the first EMBO Young Investigator based outside Europe. He holds distinguished visiting professorships at Koç University (Turkiye) and the National University of Singapore (NUS, Singapore). For more information, you may visit www.reversade.com

LOCAL Speakers

Dr. Aamna Mohammed Al Shehhi

Assistant Professor at Khalifa University's Biomedical Engineering and
Biotechnology Department
Abu Dhabi, UAE

Dr. Aamna Mohammed Al Shehhi

Dr. Aamna AlShehhi is an assistant professor at Khalifa University's Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology Department. She leads a newly formed research team dedicated to spearheading Artificial Intelligence solutions for pressing healthcare needs and bridging the gap between healthcare and researchers through technology and data analysis. Her research team is working on analyzing medical data by combining artificial intelligence, machine learning, and bioinformatics techniques to study multidimensional data, such as genomics, phenomics, clinical notes, images, etc. She has published several papers that are accepted in Q1 journals and rank A conferences. Her expertise in medical data started during her Postdoctoral at MIT, in which shewas working on a dementia drug repurposing project, a collaborative project between MIT, Harvard Medical School, and Imperial College London funded by NIH. Her work has covered a wide range of Causal Inferences, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning models for analyzing Clinical Practice Research Datalink. She also collaborated with researchers from the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research to build models programmed with deep Learning to distinguish early-stage tumor mutations from healthy individuals' DNA mutations.

Mr. Ali Saad

Doctorate, PhD student, Department of Genetics and Genomic,
College of Medicine and Health Sciences,
UAE University.

Mr. Ali Saad

Ali Saad is currently a PhD fellow in Biomedical Sciences at UAEU. His PhD research focuses on the clinical genetics of epilepsy and neurodevelopmental disorders. Genetic data analysis and bioinformatics are the main tools he uses in his research. His earlier experience and publications were concerned with novel pharmacological treatments for epilepsy and associated neurocognitive disorders. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Pharmacy and has several years of experience in community pharmacies.

Dr. Amal Mohamed Al Teneiji

Consultant Pediatric Metabolic Genetics
Head of Metabolic and Clinical Genetics Division - Pediatric Department
Sheikh Khalifa Medical City
Abu Dhabi, UAE

Dr. Amal Mohamed Al Teneiji

Dr. Amal earned her undergraduate degree from UAE University, graduating in 2006 with a Bachelor of Medicine and Health Science. Following this, she completed her residency in pediatrics at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, where she achieved the Arab Board Specialization in Pediatrics and the MRCPCH. Dr. Amal then advanced her education with postgraduate studies at The University of Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Children in Canada. In 2014, she completed a clinical fellowship in biochemical genetics and is certified by the Canadian College of Medical Genetics Board in Clinical Biochemical Genetics. Presently, she serves as a metabolic genetics consultant at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in Abu Dhabi. Additionally, she holds a position as Adjunct Faculty at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences at UAE University, is the Head of the SEHA Genomics Council, and is a founding member of the UAE Rare Disease Society.

Dr. Arif O. Khan

Division Chief, Pediatric & Neuro Ophthalmology
Eye Institute, Cleveland Clinic
Abu Dhabi, UAE

Dr. Arif O. Khan

Arif O. Khan, MD, is Division Chief of Pediatric and Neuro Ophthalmology at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, UAE. He is also Professor of Ophthalmology at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, Ohio, USA.

Prior to joining Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Dr. Khan served as Senior Academic Consultant in the Division of Pediatric Ophthalmology at King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital in Saudi Arabia. He was also Senior Scientist at the Department of Genetics at King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center during the same period. Before living in the Middle East, Dr. Khan was in private practice on Long Island, New York, and had a university appointment in New York City.

In addition to being experienced in the medical and surgical management of pediatric eye disease, Dr. Khan is a regional expert in Ocular Genetics. His clinical and research interests are the management and genetics of ocular developmental disorders and strabismus. Dr. Khan has supervised and trained scores of residents in Ophthalmology and more than 30 Fellows in Pediatric Ophthalmology clinically, surgically, and academically. He continues to serve as an external examiner to certify competency of ophthalmologists-in-training.

Dr. Khan maintains strong contacts with Academic Ophthalmology in the United States and worldwide. He serves as Chair of the Editorial Committee for the American Academy of Ophthalmology Basic & Clinical Science Course (BCSC) Section 6 (Pediatric Ophthalmology & Strabismus), Executive Board Member for the International Society for Genetic Eye Disease & Retinoblastoma, Ethics Bureau Member for the World Society of Pediatric Ophthalmology & Strabismus, Editorial Board Member for the journal Ophthalmic Genetics, and Committee Member for both the Genetic Eye Disorder and the International Affairs Committees of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology & Strabismus. Dr. Khan also served as both Editorial Board Member and later as Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology & Strabismus (JAAPOS).

Ms. Aseel Adnan Jawabri

Department of Genetics and Genomic,
College of Medicine and Health Sciences,
UAE University
Al Ain, UAE

Ms. Aseel Adnan Jawabri

Aseel Jawabri obtained a Bachelor's (BSc) degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the College of Science at the United Arab Emirates University in 2018. Ms. Jawabri pursued a journey of research, and she continued with a Master's (MSc) in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the College of Medicine and Health Sciences at the United Arab Emirates University. Ms. Jawabri is currently doing her Ph.D. at the same institution.

Her Ph.D. dissertation elucidates the cellular and molecular basis of Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH) caused by loss-of-function variants in the Low-Density Lipoprotein Receptor (LDLR) gene. Most FH cases are due to mutations in the LDLR gene, which plays a major role in LDL-C clearance. The LDLR is synthesized in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), post-translationally modified in the golgi, and transported to the plasma membrane to perform its function.

For the past decade, the UAE has witnessed increased mortality rates from cardiovascular diseases (CVD) due to underdiagnosed FH. However, we have yet to fully identify the molecular causes of FH. Together with our collaborators, we recently published an original research article in Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, focusing on evaluating the hypomorphic impacts of ten LDLR missense variants found in Emirati individuals with suspected FH.

Prof. Bassam Ali

Department of Genetics & Genomics
Zayed Center Health Sciences
College of Medicine & Health science
UAE University
Al Ain, UAE

Prof. Bassam Ali

Bassam Ali is professor of Genomic Medicine at the College of Medicine. Prof. Ali received his PhD from Cambridge University and worked for ten years at Imperial College London before joining UAEU in 2006. Prof. Ali published over 180 original articles and reviews on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of human disease as well as pharmacogenomics and precision medicine. Prof Ali has been awarded the 2018 Khalifa Education Award as the Distinguished University professor and the 2019 Shoman Award for Arab Scientists in Health Sciences. Prof Ali supervised many postgraduate and medical students and received numerous research grants. Prof. Ali is recognized internationally as he is the Deputy-Editor-in-Chief for “Human Genomics”, and an associate editor for serval other journals including “The Pharmcogemics Journal”, “Frontiers in Genetics” and “Frontiers in Pediatrics

Dr. Feda Mohamed

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Department of Genetics and Genomic,
College of Medicine and Health Sciences,
UAE University
Al Ain, UAE

Dr. Feda Mohamed

Dr. Feda E. Mohamed is a highly motivated postdoctoral fellow with a research focus on translating basic science findings in genetic disorders into clinical applications. She possesses a strong track record of leading and managing research projects, securing funding, and publishing in high-impact journals. Her work mainly focuses on elucidating the molecular basis of rare genetic metabolic disorders, particularly lysosomal storage diseases. Dr. Mohamed has made significant contributions to the field through her published work on the impact of missense variants in GM1-gangliosidosis, Schindler disease, PEPCK deficiency, and Gaucher disease. Demonstrating her scientific breadth, Dr. Mohamed also actively engages in collaborative projects on COVID-19. These projects investigate genetic variations in the ACE2 gene and explore potential Mpro inhibitors as therapeutic targets.

Dr. Ghadeera Saeed Al Mansoori

Clinical Director of Congenital and Genetic Heart Disease
Shaikh Shakhbout Medical City
Abu Dhabi, UAE

Dr. Ghadeera Saeed Al Mansoori

Dr. Ghadeera Almansoori is the Clinical Director of Congenital and Genetic Heart Disease at Shaikh Shakhbout Medical City. She serves as a Subject Matter Expert in Cardiovascular Genetics at the Department of Health and chairs the Congenital and Genetic Working Group at the Emirates Cardiac Society.

In addition to establishing adult congenital heart disease clinics, Dr. Al Mansoori founded the dedicated Heart Genetic Clinic in the UAE, which was recognized as the Flagship of Cardiovascular Genetics by the Department of Health. She is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics and Genomics at the University of the United Arab Emirates.

Dr. Hiba Alblooshi

Director of UAEU Genomic Laboratory
Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics and Genomic,
College of Medicine and Health Sciences,
UAE University
Al Ain, UAE

Dr. Hiba Alblooshi

Dr. Alblooshi is an assistant professor in the Genetic and Genomics department in the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU). Part of Dr Alblooshi’s motivation for moving to UAEU was to establish the UAEU Genomics Laboratory, which is a unique, world-class, national, and regional center that integrates cutting-edge translational research in genetics and genomics. She was assigned as director of UAEU Genomics Laboratory, her roles includes managing, operating, expanding and establishing research capacity in different genetics subdomains.

Dr Alblooshi research area span both in molecular genetics and bioinformatics in multiple domains including molecular basis of rare genetic diseases with scope in autoimmune and neuropsychiatric diseases. Much of her work has been on improving the understanding of molecular and cellular roles of novel genetics variants in the pathophysiology of the diseases. She is also, interested in applying bioinformatic and Artificial intelligence (AI) in transforming genetic analysis and health care applications. With her research work she hopes to provide new insights for the pathophysiology of the disorder and improve the application of genetic technology in understating the underling biology of the disease.

Dr. Hiba Al Shendi

Consultant Immunologist
Sheikh Khalifa Medical City
Abu Dhabi, UAE

Dr. Hiba Al Shendi

Dr Hiba Shendi, MBBS, MD, MRCPCH, MSc, FRCPath, CCT Dr Hiba Shendi is Consultant Immunologist/Allergist in Shiekh Khalifa Medical City Hospital (SKMC), Abu Dhabi, UAE. She completed a Clinical MD in Pediatrics and Child Health and obtained Membership of the Royal Pediatrics and Child Health (London), followed by MSc in Immunology of Infectious Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and completed specialist training in Allergy/Immunology in the UK in 2012.

She worked as Consultant Immunologist/Allergist, Regional Immunology Service, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, UK before joining Tawam Hospital in December 2015, as lead in Pediatric Allergy and Immunology and is currently the only Clinical Immunologist in SEHA. She transferred to SKMC in April 2024. She is responsible for the significant expansion of the Pediatric Allergy/Immunology service, now a tertiary referral centre for children as well as adults with Primary Immunodeficiency Disorders in the UAE. She also manages children and adults with various allergic conditions, She has been working on increasing awareness on primary immunodeficiency disorders and allergic conditions, locally and nationally.

She has various publications and presentations and is the main author on the first publication on primary immunodeficiency disorders in the UAE.

Ms. Lubna Khasawneh

Department of Genetics and Genomic,
College of Medicine and Health Sciences,
UAE University
Al Ain, UAE

Ms. Lubna Khasawneh

Lubna Khasawneh is a rising postgraduate student in biomedical science at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), holding a master's degree in clinical pharmacy. Her PhD research is centered on pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine, with a specific focus on the pharmacogenomics of cardiovascular disease management through antiplatelet therapies. Lubna's work delves into the genetic diversity of the UAE population, identifying key variants that influence antiplatelet drug effects. She is actively involved in one of the largest pharmacogenomics implementation projects in the country and has contributed to over four publications in the field, with several more forthcoming.

Prof. Mohamed Sabri

Director of Health Data Science Lab
College of Medicine and Health Sciences
UAE University
Al Ain, UAE

Prof. Mohamed Sabri

Mohd Saberi is a Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Health Data Science. He is now the Director of the Health Data Science Lab in the College of Medicine and Health Science, UAE University (CMSH-UAEU). His research area includes Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology. He applies his research area in healthcare, medicine, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, energy, etc. He is a principal investigator (PI) for more than 20 research grants and the co-Pl for more than 20. Also, he has published more than 300 scientific articles (journal, conference, book chapter) and 17 books. Furthermore, he has also been an advisor, leader, and member of committees to develop academic programs at the Bachelor, Master, and Ph.D. levels for Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, IT, AI, Data Science, and Bioinformatics.

He is now a Scientific Board Member for the Big Data Analytics Centre at UAEU. At the UAE national level, the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Health and Prevention has appointed him as a member of the Working Team for Artificial Intelligence Applications of Health and Medical Research. Additionally, he has been appointed as a member of the Reference Genome Project Working Group by the Abu Dhabi Department of Health and G42 in UAE. Previously, he was Director of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Big Data, Head of the Artificial Intelligence and Bioinformatics Research Group, Founder of the Department of Data Science, Deputy Director (Academic) of the Centre for Communication and Informatics, and IT Manager. He was also appointed as a leader to head the task force for academic collaboration, training, and research between UMK and giant industries, namely Huawei Technologies Co, Ltd., Microsoft Corporation, and Alibaba Group Holding Limited. He also served as a chairman 12 times, while he was a member 56 times for the conference committees in Europe, ASEAN, Japan, the US, Australia, China, and Malaysia. Additionally, he is a member of the advisory board for the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute and loT Digital Innovation Hub in Europe.

Dr. Mushal Allam

Instructor, Department of Genetics and Genomic,
College of Medicine and Health Science,
UAE University
Al Ain, UAE

Dr. Mushal Allam

Dr. Mushal Allam is a lecturer at the Department of Genetics and Genomics, Collage of Medicine and Health Sciences at United Arab Emirates University. He has over 10+ years of extensive experience in bioinformatics and genomics and over 100+ published papers in peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Nadia Akawi

Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics & Genomics
College of Medicine & Health science
UAE University
Al Ain, UAE

Dr. Nadia Akawi

Dr. Nadia Akawi is a member of both the British Society for Genetic Medicine and the American Heart Association. She has an extensive publication record in prominent international scientific journals, including Nature Genetics, Nature Communications, and Science, with 89 documents published, an h-index of 26, an i10-index of 39, and 3,551 citations according to Google Scholar. She was awarded more than 10 Grants.

Over the years, she has worked in the UAE and the UK, analyzing genomic data from thousands of families with children exhibiting severe, undiagnosed developmental disorders, uncovering underlying genetic abnormalities. Her research later expanded to include Omics data analysis, providing novel insights into the causes and predictors of cardiovascular diseases and associated metabolic risk factors such as obesity, diabetes, and hypertension.

In 2020, Dr. Akawi rejoined UAE University as a faculty member in the Department of Genetics and Genomics at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences. She is currently the director of the Master's program in Genomic Medicine, the coordinator of three courses, and the co-coordinator of three others. Additionally, she lectures in eight undergraduate and postgraduate courses, and has supervised approximately 26 students in research projects.

Her goals are to employ her extensive expertise in translational medical research to develop her research group and train enthusiastic students at UAE University. She aims to teach them how to use large-scale genomics and functional genomics to gain causal insights into the biological basis of human diseases, identify new disease biomarkers, and discover drug targets.

Dr. Nahid Al Dhahouri

Department of Genetics and Genomic,
College of Medicine and Health Sciences,
UAE University
Al Ain, UAE

Dr. Nahid Al Dhahouri

Nahid Al Dhahouri is a PhD Scholar at the Department of Genetics and Genomics at the College of Medicine, UAE University. Her PhD research uses next-generation sequencing to decipher the molecular etiology of unsolved inherited ocular diseases in the UAE population. She obtained her master's in molecular genetics from Leicester University and did her bachelor's in genetics at Cardiff University.

Dr. Nesrin Gariballa

Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Genetics and Genomics
UAE University
Al Ain, UAE

Dr. Nesrin Gariballa

Dr. Nesrin Gariballa is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Genetics and Genomics at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, UAE University (CMHS, UAEU), working under the supervision of Prof. Bassam Ali for the past 15 months. She earned her BSc (with distinction) from De Montfort University, UK, followed by an MSc (with distinction) in Pharmacology and Biotechnology from Sheffield Hallam University, UK. Dr. Gariballa completed her PhD in 2023 under the mentorship of Prof. Bassam Ali at UAE University. Dr. Gariballa has extensive expertise in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) protein folding quality control and has authored several publications in this field. Her work includes four significant papers focused on the cellular mechanisms underlying diseases caused by mutations in components of the TGFβ signalling pathway.

Dr. Noura AlDhaheri

Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics & Genomics
College of Medicine & Health sciences
UAE University
Al Ain, UAE

Dr. Noura AlDhaheri

Noura AlDhaheri is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Genetics & Genomics, College of Medicine and Health Sciences (CMHS), UAE University. Dr. AlDhaheri holds American Board of Pediatrics certification and is qualified in Medical Genetics & Genomics and Medical Biochemical Genetics.

Dr. AlDhaheri obtained her pediatric residency training at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington DC, USA (2012-2015) then training in Medical Genetics from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and National Institute of Health in the United States (2015-2017). Following that, she completed Medical Biochemical Genetics Fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children Hospital in Houston, TX, USA in November 2018 and joined CMHS- UAE University as an Assistant Professor. She is also a consultant Clinical Genetics and Medical Biochemical Genetics at Tawam Hospital, Al Ain.

Dr. AlDhaheri’s current research focus is in Genomic Medicine. Specifically, rare disease and identification of novel genes for rare disease in several cohorts including: cleft lip/palate, VACTERL/VATER and vertebral malformation cohorts in an attempt to help “solve” Mendelian disorders for which the genetic etiology is presently unknown. In addition, she runs Cancer Genetics clinic through Tawam Hospital, the only official Cancer Genetics clinic through SEHA facilities in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. Through the Cancer Genetics clinic, Dr. AlDhaheri sees a wide spectrum of patients referred for hereditary cancer including Breast ovarian, and colon cancer syndromes.

Dr. Nuha Alzaabi

Pediatric Arab board, MRCPCH
Biochemical genetic physician
Fujairah Hospital
UAE

Dr. Nuha Alzaabi

Dr. Nuha Alzaabi is a pediatric and biochemical genetic physician working at Fujairah Hospital, UAE. She is a member of the Arab Board and MRCPCH in 2015. Dr. Alzaabi completed her metabolic genetic fellowship at UAE University in collaboration with Tawam Hospital and McMaster University in Canada. Dr. Alzaabi received her MBBS from the College of Medicine and Health Sciences at UAE University

Dr. Watfa Shahwan Al Dhaheri

Consultant, Pediatric Nephrology
Department of Pediatric,
Sheikh Khalifa Medical City
Abu Dhabi, UAE

Dr. Watfa Shahwan Al Dhaheri

Dr. Watfa AlDhaheri is a consultant pediatrician and pediatric nephrologist currently working in Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC), UAE. She is a UAEU graduate. She has completed a pediatric residency at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. She has also completed a pediatric nephrology fellowship training at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. She is interested in general nephrology with special interest in renal genetics and renal congenital anomalies

moderators

Dr. Ali Said Al Beshri

Consultant Physician, Genetics Division, Department of Pediatrics
Tawam Hospital
Al Ain, UAE

Dr. Ali Said Al Beshri

Dr. Ali Al-Beshri is a U.S. board certified physician in Internal Medicine, Medical Genetics and Genomics, and Medical Biochemical Genetics. He completed his medical degree at Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University in Saudi Arabia and followed it by a combined residency in internal medicine and medical genetics and genomics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the United States. He then subspecialized in medical biochemical genetics through a fellowship at the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of health (NIH) in Bethesda. Following his training, Dr. Al-Beshri served as an assistant professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham for three years. During his tenure, he co-established Alabama's first adult cardiogenomics clinic and the first adult mitochondrial diseases clinic. He currently serves as a consultant physician at Tawam Hospital in the division of genetics and as an adjunct faculty at University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Al-Beshri's clinical interests include adult-onset genetic disorders and inborn errors of metabolism.

Prof. Bassam Ali

Department of Genetics & Genomics
Zayed Center Health Sciences
College of Medicine & Health science
UAE University
Al Ain, UAE

Prof. Bassam Ali

Dr. Halima Alnaqbi

Assistant Professor
Biomedical Engineering & Biotechnology, Khalifa University
Al Ain, UAE

Dr. Halima Alnaqbi

Dr. Halima Alnaqbi holds a PhD in engineering from Khalifa University and an MSc in biomedicine sciences from the University of Pittsburgh. Her research centers on human genetics, immunogenetics, and multi-omics, with a particular focus on genetic predisposition to immune-related diseases and cancer. Dr. Alnaqbi’s work has contributed to bridging knowledge gaps in genomics and immunogenetics, particularly in histocompatibility for organ transplantation in UAE patients. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in collaboration with KU Leuven in Belgium, where she investigated novel drug targets for diabetic complications and cancer immunotherapy.

Dr. Hamda Abulhoul

Consultant in Paediatric Metabolic Medicine
Al Jalila Children's Hospital
Dubai, UAE

Dr. Hamda Abulhoul

Dr. Hamda Abulhoul MB ChB, DCH, MSc, FRCPCH
Dr Hamda Abulhoul is a consultant pediatrician in inborn errors of metabolism. Dr Abulhoul graduated from Edinburgh Medical School, U.K. in 1995. She completed all her postgraduate training in the UK, becoming a consultant in 2005. From 2008-2016 she worked as a Consultant in Metabolic Medicine at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, U.K. During her time at Great Ormond Street Hospital she was Clinical Lead for the metabolic department with a strong focus on patient experience and safety. Dr Abulhoul moved to the U.A.E and started working in Dubai in 2016. She is currently working at Al Jalila children’s specialty hospital, Dubai.

Dr. Maryam Alshehhi

Consultant Clinical Geneticist
Sheikh Khalifa Medical City
Abu Dhabi, UAE

Dr. Maryam Alshehhi

Dr. Maryam Al Shehhi, is a consultant clinical geneticist at Sheikh Khalifa Medical city, Abu Dhabi. She is MD graduate of Sultan Qaboos University 2007, Oman. She received pediatric training at the Oman medical Specialty Board (OMSB). She holds Arab Board and (MRCPCH) certificates in Pediatrics and she finished a Fellowship training in Clinical Genetics from the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and holds a certificate of training in Medical Genetics from the Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath), UK. She is a member of the SEHA Genomics Service Line and a faculty trainer at UAEU Medical Genetics Fellowship and Genetic Counselling Master course. She was associate program director of Pediatric residency program in Oman for 5 years. She was also the vice President of Oman society of genetic Medicine. She has many publications in medical genetics including new discoveries of rare disease genes. Her areas of interest and research are rare genetic diseases, dysmorphology, neurodevelopment and neuromuscular disorders.

Dr. Nadia Akawi

Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics & Genomics
College of Medicine & Health science
UAE Universityz
Al Ain, UAE

Dr. Nadia Akawi

Dr. Nadia Akawi is a member of both the British Society for Genetic Medicine and the American Heart Association. She has an extensive publication record in prominent international scientific journals, including Nature Genetics, Nature Communications, and Science, with 89 documents published, an h-index of 26, an i10-index of 39, and 3,551 citations according to Google Scholar. She was awarded more than 10 Grants. Over the years, she has worked in the UAE and the UK, analyzing genomic data from thousands of families with children exhibiting severe, undiagnosed developmental disorders, uncovering underlying genetic abnormalities. Her research later expanded to include Omics data analysis, providing novel insights into the causes and predictors of cardiovascular diseases and associated metabolic risk factors such as obesity, diabetes, and hypertension.

In 2020, Dr. Akawi rejoined UAE University as a faculty member in the Department of Genetics and Genomics at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences. She is currently the director of the Master's program in Genomic Medicine, the coordinator of three courses, and the co-coordinator of three others. Additionally, she lectures in eight undergraduate and postgraduate courses, and has supervised approximately 26 students in research projects. Her goals are to employ her extensive expertise in translational medical research to develop her research group and train enthusiastic students at UAE University. She aims to teach them how to use large-scale genomics and functional genomics to gain causal insights into the biological basis of human diseases, identify new disease biomarkers, and discover drug targets.

Dr. Nazar Zaki Siedahmed

Professor of Computer Science Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering,
College of Information Technology (CIT),
UAE University
Al Ain, UAE

Dr. Nazar Zaki Siedahmed

Nazar Zaki Siedahmed, a Professor of Computer Science with a focus on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, holds a Ph.D. from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), where he was honored with the Dean's recognition for his valuable research contributions in 2004. For nearly a decade, he led the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the College of Information Technology (CIT) at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), during which time he introduced new academic programs and played a pivotal role in the department's growth and success. As the founder of the Big Data Analytics Center, Dr. Zaki's research interests encompass data mining, machine learning, and bioinformatics, with a particular emphasis on devising intelligent algorithms to address challenges in fields such as biology, healthcare, and education. With over 140 publications in esteemed journals and conferences, Dr. Zaki is an accomplished academic. His outstanding scholarship has been recognized with numerous awards, including the College Recognition Award for Excellence in Scholarship in 2007, 2012, 2016, and 2023 as well as the Chancellor's Innovation Award in Technology in 2015.

Dr. Nour Al Dain Marzouka

Research Scientist,
Khalifa University
Abu Dhabi, UAE

Dr. Nour Al Dain Marzouka

Dr. Nour Al Dain Marzouka is a Research Scientist at the Center for Biotechnology (BTC) at Khalifa University (KU), specializing in bioinformatics, cancer genomics, and genetic research. His academic journey began with a prestigious Erasmus Mundus scholarship, leading him to pursue Biology and Health (Human Genetics) at Montpellier 2 University in France, where he earned his Ph.D. in 2014. Following his doctorate, Dr. Marzouka undertook two years of postdoctoral research at Uppsala University in Sweden, focusing on epigenetics, cancer, and autoimmune diseases. His growing expertise in cancer genomics led him to Lund University, where he spent five years as a researcher and bioinformatician. During this period, he played a pivotal role in developing and clinically implementing a bladder cancer classifier in southern Sweden. Expanding his scope beyond cancer genomics, Dr. Marzouka contributed to large-scale population genomics initiatives as a clinical bioinformatician with G42 Healthcare in the UAE. His work with the Emirati Genome Project (EGP) further solidified his expertise in analyzing and interpreting genetic variations in diverse populations. Currently, at Khalifa University, Dr. Marzouka continues to advance bioinformatics and genomics research. He plays a key role in groundbreaking projects such as the Emirati Reference Genome Project, contributing to genomic analyses of human, plant, and animal genomes. His work is instrumental in enhancing the understanding of genetic diversity and its implications for precision medicine and biotechnology.

Prof. Rifat Akram Hamoudi

Prof Rifat Akram Hamoudi Professor in Molecular, Cellular and Computational Medicine College of Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE

Prof. Rifat Akram Hamoudi

Professor Rifat Hamoudi, Ph.D, C.Eng, C.Sci is a Professor in Molecular, Cellular and Computational Medicine within the College of Medicine, University of Sharjah. He is a multi and inter-disciplinary researcher with deep background and work experience that spans the fields of Medicine, Engineering and Computer Science. He started out as electronic engineer but moved to medical sciences. He has three different MSc degrees from the University of London in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Electronics and Information Engineering and Computer Science respectively. He has a PhD from University of Cambridge in Pathology and Immunology. He worked in cancer genetics, molecular and cellular pathology and software engineering projects and was involved in the design and analysis of numerous scientific research studies including phase I clinical trials. His main field of research interest is developing molecular techniques and novel algorithms, tools and devices based on engineering and mathematics principles and applying them to the acquisition and analysis of data obtained from biomedical experiments. Recently, he developed many novel Artificial Intelligence algorithms for the analysis of genomics data to gain deeper understanding of the genetic patterns that underlie some of the prevalent diseases in the UAE. He was a member of the team that discovered the BRCA2 gene at the Royal Marsden, UK. In addition, he co-initiated the Personal Genome Project - UK with other researchers at UCL where he led the software and algorithms development and has written many information management system software using various software engineering methodologies to collate, store clinicopathology information and correlate that to multi-OMICs (genomics, transcriptomics and epigenetics) data. Professor Hamoudi is currently the director of the Centre of Excellence for Precision Medicine at the University of Sharjah. Throughout the last few years, led and contributed to numerous studies related to the genetics of various chronic complex diseases in the UAE including autoimmune, cancer, COVID-19, metabolic, asthma as well as other monogenic diseases prevalent in the UAE.

Dr Shaikha Almazrouei

Research Lead
Advanced Technology Research Council
Abu Dhabi, UAE

Dr Shaikha Almazrouei

Dr. Shaikha Almazrouei holds a PhD from King's College London, specializing in liver transplantation using hepatocyte microbes. She also earned two Master’s degrees: one from King's College London in "Stem Cells: From Bench to Market" and another from the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), focusing on the genetic basis of familial hypercholesterolemia. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology at UAEU. Dr. Almazrouei is an active member of several prestigious international scientific associations, including the International Stem Cells Research Association (ISCCR), the International Society of Cell & Gene Therapy (ISCT), and the International Cryobiology Society.

In addition to her academic and research contributions, Dr. Almazrouei is the Chairman and Co-Founder of the UAE Stem Cell Society and serves as a lead researcher at the Biotechnology Research Center of the Abu Dhabi Technology Innovation Institute. Throughout her career, she has been involved in numerous pioneering projects, such as the establishment of the Emirati Genome in collaboration with G42 and the development of DNA fingerprinting for the UAE Armed Forces and the Abu Dhabi Police Fingerprint Unit. She also worked as a research assistant at Khalifa University.

Dr. Zeina Al-Mahayri

Assistant Professor of Genetics
College of Health Sciences, Abu Dhabi University
Abu Dhabi, UAE

Dr. Zeina Al-Mahayri

Dr. Zeina is a distinguished pharmacogenomics scientist with a Ph.D. in Pharmacogenomics from the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU). Her research has been pivotal in uncovering rare and novel pharmacogenetic variants in Arab populations, with over 24 publications in prestigious international journals. She completed advanced training in teaching through Harvard Medical School’s "Teaching in Medicine" program, which enhances her approach to education in precision medicine.

Currently, Dr. Zeina serves as an assistant professor of genetics at Abu Dhabi University’s College of Health Sciences, where she integrates her research expertise into her teaching. She is also an active member of international pharmacogenomics consortia and holds editorial roles in scientific journals. As an Educational Specialist with the UK-based Golden Helix Foundation and the leader of the IVPN-Personalized Medicine initiative, she is dedicated to advancing pharmacogenomics education and its clinical application, with a particular focus on the Middle Eastern region.