Qatar Biobank and Qatar Genome Programs Road Map

Abstract

Qatar Biobank “QBB” is a large-scale, long term medical research initiative for the population of Qatar, which will serve as a platform and driver of biomedical research to achieve benefits for Qatar’s communities. Following on from the announcement of the Qatar Genome Project in 2013 by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation “QF”, a National Genome Committee “NGC” is tasked with the role of driving and advising the development of the Genome Project in Qatar. To ensure the successful implementation and completion of a project of this complexity, it was important to consider carefully the organizational structure of Genome Qatar to enable success, so the decision was to establish QG project within the existing framework of the government of QBB. A road map constitutes of seven key building blocks, were identified to address the critical success factors and be managed and overseen by the Board of Trustee for both QBB and QG program. The seven building blocks are 1-Develop a National Health Information System, 2-Enhancement of the National Biobank, 3-Develop Genomics Infrastructure,4- Develop Policy Framework for genomics and precision medicine, 5-Workforce Development ,6- Research and Partnership and 7- Clinical/Medical implementation. To successfully accomplish this ambitious role a road map is initiated through a pilot phase to establish the infrastructure and human capacity for 12-18 months in order to tackle problems, identify loopholes, analyze the needs and optimize systems that are needed for the entire Qatar Genome project. The aim is to sequence 1000-3000 genomes to develop a good model of practice for regulatory compliant, sample collection and storage, high quality data generation, analysis and annotation pipeline development and data warehouse establishment.