Dr. Hamdi Mbarek
Qatar Foundation’s genomic research during the pandemic have contributed to country’s efforts to find ways in which they could be best in responding to the crisis.
QF’s Qatar Genome Programme (QGP) contributed to the national efforts led by Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) to provide the resources and manpower necessary for genomic surveillance of the COVID-19 outbreak in Qatar.
QGP has also initiated research about genome association with new COVID-19 variants, Dr. Hamdi Mbarek, Research Partnerships Manager at QGP, told The Peninsula.
“Together with our colleagues, we have tracked the spread of variants, monitored changes to the genetic code of SARS-CoV-2 variants and reported the findings for the scientific community in peer-reviewed publication.
Collectively, this information is used to better understand how variants might impact public health,” Dr. Mbarek said.
Internationally, QGP became the first member from the Arab world to contribute to this global effort, called the COVID-19 Host Genomics Initiative. It was founded in March 2020 by Andrea Ganna and Mark Daly from the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland, University of Helsinki and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
According to Dr. Mbarek, the initiative has grown to be one of the most extensive collaborations in human genetics and currently includes more than 3000 scientists from over 54 countries. The study is based on accumulating DNA samples from COVID-19 patients all across the world and comparing them to negative controls. This type of study is referred to as a Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS).
By sharing and analysing data encompassing 49,562 cases and two million controls across 46 studies, the consortium identified 13 genetic variations associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe manifestations of COVID-19.
He said that the research findings were published in July 2021 in the world’s leading multidisciplinary science journal, Nature. With the ongoing pandemic, the efforts of the consortium continued to collect and analyse more COVID-19 samples.
“The greatest thing about the Host Genetics Initiative is that it provides a concrete example of why increasing diversity is important in research, especially in genetics research. Without Qatar and a few other countries like Brazil, South Korea and South America, the consortium would never have discovered two of the 13 genes associated with COVID-19 susceptibility and severity,” said Dr. Mbarek.
“Qatar continues to contribute significantly and actively to increase diversity and equity in genomic research globally. This HGI involvement is one example but we also continue to provide significant scientific findings through our QGP research consortium which has published recently important scientific articles relevant for the region and beyond. The availability of infrastructure, data and people put Qatar at the forefront of science research and innovation,” he added.
Dr. Mbarek said that identification of these risk factors can ultimately lead to develop genetic tests to predict the spread of the disease around the world, develop potential targeted therapies and re-purpose medications to treat new infections and long haul cases of COVID-19. Global participation in precision medicine research has created a new way of better understanding unique populations to inform the impact of disease and treatment mechanisms.
Genomic data helps medical professionals to identify patients and groups who are at high risk of developing certain conditions and better tailor their treatments.
According to Dr. Mbarek, QGP continues to collect data on the emergence of new variants and the link with disease susceptibility and severity.
“Several studies are underway and the findings will be revealed soon,” he added.
