Last Sunday, H.E. Dr. Hanif Hassan, Minister of Health and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences received in his office at the Ministry's headquarter in Abu Dhabi, Professor Edison Liu, president of the Human Genome Organization and the Genome Institute of Singapore.

 

The two sides discussed ways of strengthening mutual cooperation and benefit from the applications of the human genome in the development of health care in the UAE.

 

Also, H.E. Minister of Health witnessed signing a Memorandum of Understanding between Professor Edison Liu and Professor Najeeb Al Khaja, Secretary General of Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences (SHAMS) concerning holding the 15th meeting of the Human Genome Organization (HUGO2011), which will be hosted by the award, in conjunction with the award's Center for Arab Genomic Studies' 4th Pan Arab Human Genetics Conference from 14th to 17th of March 2011 at Dubai World Trade Centre under the title "Genetic Diversity and Inherited Diseases".

 

UAE Minister of Health

 

The meeting was attended by Dr. Mahmoud Taleb Al Ali, Director of (CAGS) and Dr. Ghazi Tadmouri Assistant Director of the Centre.

 

During the meeting, H.E. Minister of Health has blessed the fruitful cooperation between HUGO and CAGS, which will allow cooperation of global and regional top geneticists, in order to discuss ways of enhancing health care in the Arab region based on the latest Genomic applications.

 

H.E. Dr. Hanif Hasan praised the generous support of the Patron of the Award H.H. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and the UAE Minister of Finance, and his keenness on coordinating with all the official associations in UAE to overcome all obstacles and provide all possible facilities for the participants of the meeting who are expected to be more than 1500 doctors and geneticists.

 

This meeting came at the top of the agenda of Professor Edison Liu during his 2-day visit to the United Arab Emirates during which he reviewed the organizational and managerial procedures for HUGO2011 and held a series of meetings with officials of CAGS and the organizers in order to lay the final touches to the scientific program of the meeting.

 

Professor Liu was also keen to visit the ballrooms allocated for holding the meeting in the Dubai World Trade Centre where he met officials and assured all details of technical equipments to be in line with the latest international standards commensurate with the importance of the meeting regionally and internationally.

 

Professor Edison Liu has shown his pride constructive cooperation between HUGO and SHAMS, and praised the role of the Patron of the Award H.H. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and the UAE Minister of Finance, in developing human genetics through the establishment of CAGS in 2003 which published the largest and most important database for genetic disorders in the Arab region which has become in a few years an important reference for geneticists in the world.