Our team has been focusing on precision health approaches and how AI can increase the potential for novel discoveries and better prediction models for complex diseases. Our research focuses on Middle Eastern populations, especially Qataris. The objective is to use multi-modal health data to gain novel biological insights into disease mechanisms, and improve predictive model accuracy. Genetics (whole-genome sequence data), metabolomics, proteomics, and electronic health records are part of the multi-modal data layers. Our research has led to multiple high-impact articles in the top-tier journals such as: Lancet Oncology, Immunity, Circulation: Genomics and Precision Medicine, Journal of the American Heart Association, Genome Research, and others.

Data
The core data in our projects is obtained from the Qatar Precision Health Institute (Qatar Biobank & Qatar Genome Program). However, we also use other sources of data such as the UK Biobank data, AllofUs, and others.

Health conditions and diseases
Diseases that are prevalent in Qatar and the Middle East were the center of our research. This includes Cancer and Cardiometabolics diseases (Coronary Artery Disease, Type 2 Diabetes, Atrial Fibrillation, Electrocardiography traits, and others).

Methodological Approaches

Awarded Grants and Proposals
1. Path To Precision Medicine, 6th Cycle: Polygenic, metabolic, and clinical risk score utility for cardiometabolic traits in Middle Eastern populations; Lead PI: Dr. Mohamad Saad
2. QPHI-RES-PUB2-00015: Multimodal AI-based Analysis of Genomics, Medical Imaging, and Electronic Medical Records in the Middle East: Insights from the Qatar Precision Health Institute Dataset; Lead PI: Dr. Mohamad Saad
3. QPHI-RES-PUB2-00015: Association of Rare Variants in Protein-Coding and Long Non-Coding RNA Genes with Cardiometabolic Traits and Cancer; co-Lead PI: Dr. Mohamad Saad

Collaborators
We have been collaborators with local and international institutions.
Local collaborators include Qatar Biomedical Research Institute, Qatar Precision Health Institute, Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, Hamad Medical Corporation, Sidra Medicines, and others.
International collaborators: Queen Mary University of London, Mayo Clinic, Marshall University, University of Washington, and others.