National Genome Center hopes to complete genome project second phase by December

The National Genome Center has achieved the first phase of its project by storing 6,000 biological samples, including 2,000 samples for people with rare diseases and their families, and another 4,000 samples from other participants.

It now hopes to achieve its target for the second phase of the project by the end of this year, Health Minister Faeqa bint Saeed Al Saleh said.

She said that the National Genome Center was inaugurated in implementation of the directives of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister.

She stressed the ministry's keenness to implement the directives "because of the contribution this center would help the prevention of genetic diseases and the development of effective preventive and curative strategies."

The center continues to contribute to the prevention of genetic diseases and the development of effective medicines to treat them, which helps provide a healthy life and prevent diseases for current and future generations, she said.

The genome project team is also supervising several studies related to the genome of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and the genome of infected people to know the genes related to the severity of infection.

The center will contribute to the prevention of genetic diseases and the development of effective preventive and treatment strategies, which will help provide a healthy life free of diseases for current and future generations, she said.

Al Saleh stressed the ministry's commitment to implement the plans in order to increase the pace of progress, which will be reflected in achieving more developmental achievements for Bahrain.
The National Genome Center aims to collect 50,000 samples within five years and establish a comprehensive national database with the aim of improving quality and continuing to adopt modern technologies in health that will help diagnose and develop innovative solutions for citizens.

The center called on people to participate in the national genome project by donating blood samples at health centers for genetic study and to email genome@health.gov.bh for replies to questions or inquiries.