First of 100 Arab Human Genomes Sequenced by Saudi Biosciences, Beijing Genomics Institute Shenzhen, and CLC bio

An international consortium consisting of Saudi Biosciences, Beijing Genomics Institute Shenzhen, and CLC bio have in a joint effort performed an initial sequencing and analysis of the first Arab human genome, as part of a large project to sequence 100 Arab human genomes to map the unique genetic variations of the Arab population.

His Royal Highness Prince Ahmad bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz, Head of the Board of Directors at Saudi Biosciences, said “This marks the first milestone in our goal to pioneer the personalized medicine era in the Arab world, and the next step is to lead a large project to sequence 100 Arab genomes at high resolution no later than the end of 2010. Our ambitions are to make this project go beyond similar international efforts, both in terms of quality and quantity!”

Dr. Saeed Hussain from Saudi Bio Sciences, states, “We are extremely proud to present the first Arab human genome! This project launches the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in to the small circle of nations who are currently in the process of building sophisticated databases of human genetic variation. This database is fundamental in the process of analyzing and understanding the specific genetic makeup of Arabs, which in turn will provide key knowledge to improve medical care for this large group of people.”

After Saudi Biosciences launched this project early 2008, an international joint collaboration with Beijing Genomics Institute and CLC bio was organized. A high quality sequencing of this genome was generated using Illumina’s Genome Analyzer platform. Afterwards the data was assembled and analyzed using CLC bio’s CLC Genomics Workbench.

The results, including analysis and identification of the unique variants of the Arab genome compared to African, European and Asian genomes, have been accumulated. The data are currently confidential but will be released following publication.