Participants at one of the sessions during the workshop.

The Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI), in collaboration with the Harvard Medical School (HMS) Office of Global Education, has started a workshop which is the first element of the Harvard Medical School Cancer Biology and Therapeutics programme (HMS-CBT).
The workshop is a 12-month non-clinical blended-learning certificate programme that provides participants with advanced training in key aspects of cancer research and treatment.
The programme’s first intake includes 63 clinicians and scientists from around the world, with 10 Qataris among 19 participants representing Qatar. The faculty participating in the workshops includes experts from QBRI, HMS, Hamad Medical Corporation and Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar.
QBRI and HMS had announced the establishment of the programme in June 2015. Over the next year, students will take part in a wide range of workshops, lectures, and interactive webinars. The residential workshop in Doha is the first of three, and will be followed by similar workshops in London and at Harvard Medical School in Boston in 2016.
At the programme’s outset, participants are assigned to teams to work together across national boundaries and time zones. Throughout the programme, students have access to senior faculty from Harvard Medical School and will be equipped with a deep understanding of cancer biology, cancer screening, diagnosis and personalised treatments. Topics being discussed and investigated include neoplasia and the pathology of cancer, breast cancer in the Middle East, cervical cancer, childhood leukemia, melanoma, cancer immunotherapy, and various approaches to studying cancer.
Participants were welcomed by Dr Hilal Lashuel, QBRI’s executive director, and Dr Ajay K Singh, associate dean for Global and Continuing Education at HMS. They introduced the programme’s directors Dr Peter Howley and Dr Ed Harlow from Harvard Medical School, and Dr George D Demetri, director of the Ludwig Centre at Harvard. This was followed by a series of faculty and student discussions around the subject of cancer as “The Emperor of All Maladies”. The workshop will end tomorrow.


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