QF Entity opens accessibility to state-of-the-art research services
28 February 2024, Doha, Qatar – In support of Rare Disease Day, Sidra Medicine today announced the accessibility of its unique and state-of-the-art research technologies and expertise being commercially available to external health and research institutions.
Dr. Iyabo Tinubu-Karch, Chief Executive Officer at Sidra Medicine said: “Sidra Medicine’s precision medicine program centers on a research mission to deliver it hospital-wide to all our patients. This supports our ambition to carry out research that provides accurate and timely diagnoses for women and children with complex conditions and rare diseases, and to pioneer new approaches to disease management and treatments. I am proud to see the advancements we have made in this field, that we are now able to offer access to other institutions who are seeking to enable their own precision medicine programs.”
Over the past decade, Sidra Medicine has developed its research expertise and platforms to serve Qatar’s community of rare disease patients. The healthcare organization has established protocols that bring research closer to the pathway of care for patients, enabling a deeper understanding of their condition and translating it into more personalized care. By making its state-of-the-art genomic and therapeutic platforms more readily accessible to external institutions, will allow those institutions to support their own patients with rare diseases.
Dr. Khalid Fakhro, Chief Research Officer at Sidra Medicine said: “To commemorate rare disease day, we are excited to be opening up a number of our research core services to external partners and entities. We hope this allows more clinicians and researchers to generate useful data on their patients without the need for upfront investment in capital and expertise, and shorten the journey from diagnosis to treatment for the patients who need it the most.
Our core services have processed thousands of patient samples, which have helped provide accurate and early diagnosis, tailor their disease management or therapy to maximize favorable patient outcomes. Most importantly it has allowed us to develop two unique assets – we now have datasets of health and disease that are specific to Arab or regional populations; and secondly, we have research cores that are designed from the ground up to support rare disease studies,” continued Dr. Fakhro.
Some of the genomic and phenotyping services that will be made available to external institutions include:
- Genomic services: short-and long-read sequencing, optical genome mapping, RNA and single cell sequencing, miRNA detection, DNA methylation.
- Deep Cellular phenotyping: deep multi-color flow cytometry, cell sorting, advanced microscopy and imaging, metabolomic, proteomic, and lipidomic services;
- Zebrafish disease modeling: gene validation studies, behavioral analysis, drug library screening, tissue-specific multi-omics.
In addition to advances supporting patient diagnosis and deep phenotyping, Sidra Medicine is embarking on a future of advanced therapies for patients who need it the most, by leveraging its recently completed and fully licensed Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facility.
Dr. Chiara Cugno, Director of the Advanced Cell Therapy Core at Sidra Medicine said: “From cutting-edge advanced diagnostics to advanced therapies manufacturing, including cell and gene therapy, we can now close the loop of personalized medicine. For example, our GMP Facility is fully equipped to support other institutions and hospitals in their own mission to offer precision healthcare to their own patients or for public health programs. It will empower their ability to bring novel therapies closer to the patients. The future is exciting for cell and gene therapy treatments and we are looking forward to building partnerships and alliances from around the world.”
Customers and partners can visit the research website (Overview - Sidra Research Services) and fill out a service request form. Personalized requests for clinical grade cell therapy and gene therapy products can be sent to gmp@sidra.org.
Did you know?
- Sidra Medicine’s dedicated research labs are over 21,000 ft2
- It has over 20 research labs and core facilities
- It has sequenced over 50,000 human whole genomes
- It has over 200 clinical researchers
- It has one ISO-Certified GMP facility