Follow the genome: An increasing focus on medical and health sciences

One area of research in which Qatar is forging ahead these days is that of medical and health sciences. Behind the mass of new studies and projects now ongoing in the state lies Qatar Foundation (QF), although a number of other institutions are also deeply involved in this multi-application research.

Health Priorities

The Qatar National Research Strategy (QNRS) is the framework for these activities, which range from understanding the effects of prolonged exercise in extreme climatic conditions, to molecular screening for gastrointestinal pathogens. Indeed, of the strategy’s four pillars – areas of particular focus for research – health is the third. Within this pillar, the QNRS has identified a number of national health priorities for attention, including type-II diabetes; cancers; infectious diseases transmitted in communities and hospitals; child health; maternal health; genetic causes and linkages in disease; cardiovascular diseases; road traffic accidents; neurosciences – including mental health, brain injury and epilepsy; sports and health; cross-cutting community engagement to raise awareness of health issues; and building a similar engagement in issues of environmental health.

Many of these topics have long been concerns for both medical professionals and citizens in Qatar. Showing a keen awareness of this, the QNRS dovetails with the over-arching goals of Qatar National Vision 2030 and its current, shorter-term instalment, the Qatar National Development Strategy 2011-16. Human development is one of the vision’s four pillars, with this informing a range of current initiatives.

An example of how this all fits together is the development of “sport for all”, an initiative that aims to improve the quality of life for Qataris via a major investment in sports infrastructure and practice (see Sports chapter). This has clear implications for public health, while also creating demand for top-flight research into issues such as the growing incidence of obesity.

Helping put the priorities of the QNRS into motion too are a series of measures to build enabling platforms.

These include a national translational centre; public health research; the alignment of a biobank to create the research infrastructure necessary for Qatar’s needs; and a targeted cardiovascular research centre. Health research training opportunities, the advancement of e-health research, enabling platforms in stem cell, genomics, bioinformatics, imaging and a host of other areas are also highlighted in the strategy. Providing much of the financing is the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), part of QF Research & Development (QF R&D) that supports projects matching QNRS priorities.

Offered Programmes

QNRF supports two non-funding activities – the Conference and Workshop Sponsorship Programme and the Qatar Research Survey. The organisation also has six funding mechanisms: the National Priorities Research Programme; the Junior Scientists Research Experience Programme; the Postdoctoral Research Award; the Graduate Student Research Award; the Undergraduate Research Experience Programme (UREP); and the Secondary School Research Experience Programme (SSREP).

As the last of these suggest, the aim is to make research an integral part of education at every level, from school through to postgrad and beyond. The emphasis is learning by doing, according to QNRF, with the Supreme Education Council closely involved in the SSREP’s introduction to the classroom. In October 2013, the last award cycle, 81 school students, including 39 Qataris, won prizes of up to QR5000 ($1370) for 48 different research projects under the SSREP.

Meanwhile, QNRF awarded some $1.39m in research grants to undergraduate students in January 2014, during UREP’s 15th award cycle. According to QNRF, the grants were received by some 145 students, 44 of whom were Qatari nationals.

At the same time, there are a range of other corporations and institutions that are central to the roll-out of the QNRS. With most international high-level research being at least partly connected to universities – and generally speaking, at the postgraduate level – Qatar’s array of international university and college campuses has stood the strategy in good stead.

Award Recipients

Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q) is a major recipient of QNRF funding, with active projects there including research into the role of biological co-factors in HIV epidemiology, genomic and proteomic signatures for prostate cancer in Middle Eastern and North African populations, and genome assays of Qatari patients diagnosed with bipolar disorders. Other major international research award recipients include Texas A&M at Qatar, with a training programme in genomic signals processing; the University of Calgary – Qatar, with, among others, a programme looking at breast-cancer screening practices; and Carnegie Mellon in Qatar, with one of its projects looking into pathogenic fungi formation.

Qatari institutions are also well represented in the lists of QNRF awards. Qatar University (QU) is currently undertaking a range of research projects under the scheme – from research into autism, to regional research ethics. The Supreme Council of Health (SCH), Aspetar, the Qatar Cardiovascular Research Centre (QCRC), the Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI), the AntiDoping Laboratory Qatar and the Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) are also major players in QNRF-funded research. One of the QBRI’s most important projects on this score is the Qatar Biobank for Medical Research. HMC and the SCH are also involved, along with QF R&D and scientists from Imperial College London.

Data Bank

The biobank collects biological samples and lifestyle data from Qataris, with this information then used for a variety of purposes. The biobank addresses a need in Qatar and other regional countries for data that refers specifically to local people, as historically much medical data and research internationally has tended to be based on the genetic and lifestyle patterns of Westerners. Having such a detailed bank of biological information about Qataris is thus a highly valuable research tool. Genetics is a major part of Qatar’s current medical research. In 2013 some important progress was made in this too by WCMC-Q, which is mapping the Qatari genome. Initial results showed Qatari nationals dividing largely into three different groups.

The QCRC, meanwhile, is another QF R&D-funded project that has been focusing on atrial fibrillation – one of the most frequently encountered forms of irregular heart rhythm. The QCRC’s studies showed important differences in the incidence of this between Qatari patients and those in the US, suggesting a number of further avenues of research. Again, using data collected from Qatari patients to better treat Qatari patients – while also making important international discoveries – is a major philosophy behind much of the research.

As Qatar National Vision 2030 seeks to build a more knowledge-based society, the focus on scientific enquiry will be crucial, as will establishing the country as a globally-competitive research centre. The bio-information infrastructure being built, alongside the presence of properly funded researchers and scientists, may thus see investment in this high-tech, high-end part of the education spectrum advance further in the years ahead.