The future of precision medicine,
because everyone is different

José Luis Costa carried out his undergraduate studies at the University of Porto in Portugal and obtained his Ph.D. in Biology at Uppsala University in Sweden. Prior to joining the Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology at the University of Porto (IPATIMUP) in 2006, he carried out postdoctoral research at the Vrije University Medical Center in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He was appointed in 2014 as an Affiliated Professor at the Medical Faculty of the University of Porto. In 2020, José joined Thermo Fisher Scientific and is currently serving as Global Director of Scientific Affairs of the Clinical NGS and Oncology Division. Throughout his career, José has sought to promote the uptake of Precision Medicine for the benefit of patients through the application of the latest technologies in the diagnosis and the search for precision therapies.

Dr Bahzad is a specialist in clinical as well as molecular genetics. He is also a board certified clinical and anatomical pathologist. He achieved his MBBS from Kuwait University and went on to AP/CP at University of Saskatchewan, Canada, and then genetics at McMaster University, Ontario, Canada. He is currently working at the Kuwait Medical Genetics Center running a general, hemato, and cancer genetics clinics and the unit head of the Molecular Pathology lab at Kuwait Cancer Control Center, Ministry of Health, State of Kuwait. He is a tutor and board member of the Kuwait Institute of Medical Specializations’ Paediatrics, Pathology, and Clinical Chemistry residency programs.

Dr Akiki is a consultant clinical scientist who has worked in the field of molecular diagnostics since completing her PhD in Medicine at University College London in 1995. Her diagnostic expertise is currently focused on haemato oncology where the importance of standardised genomic testing to support informed patient management is well established. Before joining the Diagnostic Genomic Division at Hamad Medical corporation Dr Akiki was Deputy Head of the Cancer program at the West Midlands Genetics Laboratory, Birmingham, UK. Dr Akiki has published consistently throughout her career with over 33 publications in respected peer-reviewed journals and is an active member of the Science & Publications committee & Genomics Working Group of the British Society of Haematology.

Dr Kim is currently serving as a consultant pathologist in Department of Pathology, Sheikh Khalifa Specialty Hospital (SKSH), Ras Al Khaima, United Arab Emirates. He graduated from College of Medicine, Seoul National University (SNU) in 1998 and completed training program in anatomic pathology at Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) in 2003. After training, he had diverse experiences encompassing public institution, academia and industry. He had served as a researcher at Armed Forces Hospital, a clinical professor at SNUH and a director of molecular pathology, Korea. In 2014, he moved to UAE and served as division head of lab and deputy Chief Medical Officer (CMO) at SKSH. During this period, he directed commissioning of SKSH and establishing pathology lab. His current focus is surgical pathology and molecular pathology including next generation sequencing (NGS).

Sarah Chahine is the Emerging Markets Sales Leader for Clinical Sequencing Division at Thermo Fisher Scientific. Sarah has an extensive research expertise in molecular genetics and genomics, gained during six years working at McMaster University, Canada. Sarah obtained a PhD researching mechanisms of molecular biology and physiology, and has published a number of scientific articles related to her work. Sarah started her career at Life Technologies in the USA as an Account Manager. Where she was responsible also for NGS, Sanger Sequencing and QPCR products. Then moved to Germany to work with Centogene as the General Manager for Middle East and North Africa. She managed the portfolio for genetic testing for rare genetic disorders and Oncology. At her current role, one of her main focuses are on NGS products specifically Genetic disorders, Oncology and Reproductive Health.

Dr. Al Zadjali studied at the Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman, where in the year 2000, he received his Bachelors degree in Medical Laboratoy Sciences. He pursued his scientific career at the Ecole Pratique Des Etudes Hautes in Paris, France where he was awarded his Masters Degree in 2007 and PhD, with honours, in 2011.

From 2003 to 2020 he was in charge of the molecular diagnostic unit at the department of Haematology in Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, Oman. He started the routine molecular tests of inherited blood disorders and hematological malignancies.

Dr Al Zadjali is currently the head of research laboratories at SQCCCRC, Muscat Oman. His main interests are in molecular aspects of solid tumors especially using the liquid biopsy in genomic profiling.