Dubai: The United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based Centre for Arab Genomic Studies (CAGS) will participate in the Human Genome Meeting 2008 to be held in Hyderabad in India Sep 27-30.

The CAGS delegation will be led by its director Mahmoud Talib Al Ali and assistant director Ghazi Omar Tadmouri, the state-run Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported.

Describing the meeting as an internationally renowned conference, Al Ali said: "Undoubtedly, this will give research efforts in Arab genomics a strong boost".

The delegation will present two scientific papers on the centre's activities and its findings with regard to genetic disorders in Arab populations.

"Arab populations, especially in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, exhibit remarkable diversity in terms of genetic disorders," Tadmouri said in a statement ahead of the delegation's departure for India.

"This diversity accentuates at the clinical variability of each and every disease as well as its molecular level in terms of mutations and gene abnormalities," he added.

The GCC comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Tadmouri said the study of these genetic disorders offered a great chance to understand the functions of many genes, "thus helping us learn how our genomes function in health and disease".

The Dubai-based CAGS is a division of the Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences (SHAMS).

The centre was established in 2003 to characterise and prevent genetic disorders and transfigure the future practice of health care in the region.

CAGS includes two scientific committees: an executive board comprising local scientists and representing the governing body and the legal trustee of all activities of the centre; and a Council of CAGS consisting of a number of regional scientists.

Countries represented in the Council of CAGS currently include Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Tunisia.

According to the WAM report, CAGS and SHAMS will also participate in an exhibition that will be held in the Hyderabad event. IANS