The Metabolon platform being set up by the Anti-Doping Lab Qatar (ADLQ) is currently anticipated to receive client samples in November, it was announced yesterday.
Following the signing of the agreement between Metabolon and ADLQ in May, efforts have been focused on establishing the Metabolon platform that will enable ADLQ to offer high throughput metabolomics services based in Doha.
Both parties have been involved in the training of ADLQ staff, who will run the platform. In order to inaugurate the completion of the platform, a metabolomics science workshop was held recently. There were more than 70 attendees from overseas as well as Qatar.
Metabolon is the world’s leading health technology company advancing metabolomics for precision medicine and life sciences research. “The collaboration with ADLQ allows us to serve a new, significant market,” said Metabolon CEO Dr John Ryals.
“ADLQ, as a Qatari institute, is always concerned with projects and services that add value to the country and to the region, in terms of its impact on health and wellness. We have the required expertise and state-of-the-art instrumentation for the job. So it was an ideal collaboration,” said general manager Dr Mohamed Alsayrafi.
The session opened with a welcoming address from Dr Alsayrafi, Dr Carlos Malpica from Metabolon and Prof Khaled Machaca from Weil Cornell Medicine – Qatar.
Dr Machaca said: “The Metabolon-ADLQ platform offers local researchers with cutting edge technology to advance precision medicine in Qatar. It also represents a model of a productive national collaborative effort in Qatar, under the leadership of ADLQ to consolidate expertise and resources from multiple national stakeholders toward a communal benefit.”
In addition, Dr Hadi Abdelrahim, from Qatar Foundation said: “The ADLQ metabolomics platform will be used to help predict disease risk and monitor their evolution. The centralised model fits well the research co-ordination effort that we envision as a way forward. It is in this sense an important complement to the existing research resources already set up at WCM-Q and Sidra Medical Research Centre (proteomics and genomics), Qatar biobank, and Qatar Biomedical Research Institute.”
