Doha, December 03 (QNA) - Major strides in Qatar's precision health strategy were recorded on the second day of Sidra Medicine's Precision Medicine and the Future of Genomics Summit 2025 (PMFG) with announcements focused on gene-editing therapies, clinical trials infrastructure, and collaboration between the public-private sectors.

Day 2 opened with the keynote address from precision medicine pioneer Dr. Stephen Kingsmore, who spoke about the transformational role of rapid genome sequencing in clinical care.

He reiterated in his keynote how important it is to accelerate real-world genomic implementation and how national health programs play a crucial role in improving patient outcomes.

The Day 2 agenda included a high-level Healthcare Innovation panel titled "Public-Private Partnership and Healthcare Innovation in Qatar", bringing together senior leaders from the biotechnology, investment, and innovation sectors. The session focused on driving growth in precision medicine through commercialization, investment, and translational research ecosystems through public-private partnerships.

Panelists included senior leaders from Arbor Biotechnologies and Patient Square Capital (USA); Qatar Science & Technology Park; Qatar Research, Development and Innovation Council; Rasmal Ventures (Qatar).

Prof. Khalid Fakhro, Chief Research Officer who led the panel said: "The panel session provided valuable insights on how public–private partnerships can accelerate healthcare innovation and strengthen Qatar's position as a regional hub for biomedical research and precision medicine. We discussed how public-private partnership models can drive Qatar's next phase of healthcare innovation-leveraging combined national strategy, private capital, global expertise, and frontier science to build a resilient and high-impact biomedical ecosystem".

Sidra Medicine announced a new strategic partnership with Arbor Biotechnologies in launching the first gene-editing therapy platform for rare diseases that are unique to Qatar and the region. The partnership targets developing a common framework for state-of-the-art CRISPR-based gene-editing technologies along with genomic data as a basis for future therapies.

The partnership will focus on the identification of rare diseases and prioritized for co-development. Arbor will then apply its advanced computational technologies to design and assess CRISPR editing guides. These guides will subsequently be evaluated and validated in-vitro to identify the most promising therapeutic candidates.

Devyn Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Arbor Biotechnologies said: "We look forward to working with Sidra Medicine to advance the development of gene editing therapies for rare diseases that affect patients in Qatar. By combining their deep genomic expertise with Arbor's innovative CRISPR technologies, we aim to bring potentially transformative therapies one step closer to the families who need them most".

Prof. Khalid Fakhro, Chief Research Officer at Sidra Medicine remarked: "Our partnership with Arbor Biotechnologies brings us closer to delivering life-changing therapies to patients who currently have limited treatment options. By uniting Sidra Medicine's genomic expertise with Arbor's pioneering gene-editing capabilities, we are advancing precision medicine in a way that directly serves our patients, our families, and our community".

On Day 2, Sidra Medicine announced the opening of its new Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) - a specialized clinical ward designed to support patients enrolled in clinical trials. The Unit provides a dedicated clinical research environment for trial scheduling, consenting, conduct, oversight and patient care in both industry-sponsored and investigator-initiated trials.

The CTU accommodates interventional and non-interventional trials across outpatient and day-care settings and is built to the highest regulatory, ethical and safety standards. The Unit forms a core pillar of Sidra Medicine's strategy to accelerate clinical research, expand access to novel treatments and translate scientific discovery into clinical impact for the community.

Sidra Medicine also announced milestones from its comprehensive Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) pediatric screening program DIA-MENA, in partnership with the Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) and Qatar Precision Health Institute (QPHI).

The program is the first of its kind in Qatar and includes autoantibody and genetic screenings to predict the future risks of T1D in children. It has collected over 350 blood samples to date from children aged 1 to 15 years.

It has onboarded seven PHCCs to collect blood samples which are then sent to Sidra Medicine's Pathology Labs and Genomic Core Facility to ensure clinical grade results and follow up with any high-risk participants. By combining comprehensive islet autoantibodies and genetic risk scores testing, the program will help Sidra Medicine to detect and provide estimates of the prevalence of early-stage T1D in children across the country.

Dr. Ammira Al Shabeeb Akil, lead principal investigator and head of the Precision Medicine for Diabetes Prevention lab at Sidra Medicine said: "This comprehensive research-based screening program is a strategic example of Qatar's active efforts to embed precision medicine processes starting from primary care all the way to tertiary care, to tackle Type 1 diabetes. I hope that together with QPHI and PHCC, DIA-MENA will also serve as a model screening program for the rest of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region".

The third and final day of the Summit, scheduled Thursday, will feature a public opening lecture on Singapore's National Precision Medicine Program, alongside a panel discussion titled "Genomics for Precision Medicine at the National and Global Levels".

The agenda will also include updates from Sidra Medicine's Innovation Lab and a special session titled "Enabling Innovation and Investment in Qatar's Knowledge Economy", in addition to a segment on Artificial Intelligence in Genomics -Achievements and New Partnerships. (QNA)