A new state-of-the-art Translational and Precision Medicine Research Laboratory (T&PML) was recently launched at the Women’s Wellness and Research Center (WWRC) to focus on high-priority maternal and neonatal health disorders, such as preterm birth congenital anomalies, hypertension, diabetes and obesity.
The new evidence generated by the laboratory can be translated into improving patient health and clinical management, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) said in a statement.
Translational medicine seeks to co-ordinate the use of new knowledge in clinical practice and to incorporate clinical observations and questions into scientific hypotheses in the laboratory. Thus, it is a bidirectional concept, encompassing so-called bench-to-bedside factors, the statement said.
Speaking about the lab, Dr Hilal al-Rifai, WWRC chief executive officer and medical director, noted that the establishment of the T&PML was in line with Qatar’s National Health Strategy and that HMC has carefully designed and developed the WWRC with family-centred care in mind.
“It gives me great pleasure to announce the opening of the WWRC's Translational and Precision Medicine Research lab (T&PML). Our hospital has reached a major milestone with this accomplishment. The T&PML will offer evidence-based care to patient and ease the clinicians’ decision-making process,” he said.
The T&PML's director, Dr Nader al-Dewik, added: "This cutting-edge facility employs the most advanced, third-generation Omics technology to discover the underlying determinants of priority health concerns impacting mothers and newborns. The multi-Omics data have great potential to assists us to deepen our understanding of the potential causes of morbidities and comorbidities amongst maternal and neonatal health as well as unprecedented opportunities to study the mechanisms of diseases/ disorders in order to support the development of new targeted interventions and therapies."
The worldwide scientific community is an example of true national and international gathering, and scientific collaboration knows no boundaries. The WWRC and its translational research laboratory is a gathering place for national and international scientists conducting research from different health and academic sectors.
"Finally, we strongly believe that the most difficult challenges can only be solved through collaboration across research in medicine," Dr al-Rifai concluded.
Officials mark the launch of the new Translational and Precision Medicine Research Lab at WWRC.
