Habiba Alsafar is currently a Director of Khalifa University Biotechnology center and an Assistant Professor in the Biomedical Engineering Department at Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa University of Science, Technology & Research; she is an Emirati research scholar who has a wealth of professional and educational experience. She gained a summer fellowship from the Massachusetts General Hospital in 2013. Her research interest is constructing the genomic structures of individuals of Arab descent to identify genomic segments that carry gene(s) that predispose to disease, specifically, addressing diseases that are increasing in prevalence amongst the local communities of the UAE. She has identified a gene strongly associated with the prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes among the Emirati population. This is the first Genome Wide Association Study of the UAE Bedouin population and first of its kind in the Middle East. Habiba Alsafar is currently a Director of Khalifa University Biotechnology center and an Assistant Professor in the Biomedical Engineering Department at Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa University of Science, Technology & Research; she is an Emirati research scholar who has a wealth of professional and educational experience. She gained a summer fellowship from the Massachusetts General Hospital in 2013. Her research interest is constructing the genomic structures of individuals of Arab descent to identify genomic segments that carry gene(s) that predispose to disease, specifically, addressing diseases that are increasing in prevalence amongst the local communities of the UAE. She has identified a gene strongly associated with the prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes among the Emirati population. This is the first Genome Wide Association Study of the UAE Bedouin population and first of its kind in the Middle East.

Diabetes,Medicine,Healthcare,Public Health