In a massively ambitious project aim at improving the health of its 3 million occupant , the city of Dubai architectural plan tosequence the DNA of its entire universe .
The United Arab Emirates city harbinger the initiative this month as part of its Dubai 10X Initiative , a bid to follow out as shortly as possible the technologies it believes will become stock 10 years from now .
The Dubai Health Association design to make a massive genomic database of all of its residents , including non - citizen , theKhaleej Timesreports . Then it plan to create novel artificial word capable of analyzing the data and potentially augur diseases before they go on .
The city tell it wants to “ reverse ” the genetic research summons . “ or else of read an affected patient ’s genetics , our AI goes through database , finds out who has been affected , and looks for non - patients with similar genetical profiles and are therefore at danger , ” the project website says .
In the terminal phase of the undertaking , the metropolis also hopes to cooperate with pharmaceutical company to design targeted therapy for genetic shape . The ending goals of the labor are lofty . Among them , the urban center hop-skip to eradicate and turn back genetic upset ; forestall disease by prompting modus vivendi changes in people at risk of exposure ; help spur the adoption of personalized medicine ; and , along the way , turn Dubai into a drawing card in genomic medicine . Whew .
It ’s undecipherable whether Dubai plans to sequence the full genome of all its resident , or to only fully sequence a large number of them and then part sequence the rest . Either means , DNA testing 3 million hoi polloi is a pretty grand pipe dream — even Britain , which has one of the most ambitious biobank political program in the domain , only plans todecode the full genomesof half a million Britisher . Though if any city can do it , it ’s believably one with aski slopein a high - rise in the centre of the desert , where big cats likelions and tigersare not - rare household pets .
Humaid Mohammed Al Qatami , director general of the Dubai Health Association , told the Khaleej Times that the first phase of the project , collecting DNA sample and pose up research laboratory , should happen over the next two age . It ’s unclear what privacy tribute will be put in place to protect the great unwashed ’s data , or whether there will be any sort of requirement to enter .
The health authority says that the country has 220 diseases connect to genetic disorder , which are responsible for 70 per centum of tiddler mortality cases that occur before historic period six . A blood disorderliness calledthalassaemia that is uncouth in Middle easterly rural area reportedly affects about half of the Emirati population . The UAE , likemany otherMiddle easterly state includingSaudi ArabiaandQatar , alreadyhas a required pre - matrimonial health screeningthat includes shield for familial diseases to avoid twain passing on upset to their small fry . ( A2015 reviewof such programs found that while they were n’t especially successful at discouraging at - risk marriages , they did contribute to reducing the preponderance of affect birthing when countries also provided antenatal screening and remedial abortions . )
The effort could also potentially unveil health issue specific to the neighborhood , and highlight how environmental cistron interplay with genetics .
desoxyribonucleic acid TestingGeneticsScience
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