Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI), part of Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), is partnering with global biotech company, Sengenics, to establish a platform for advancing research related to cancer, diabetes, and neurological disorders.
At a special event held earlier in October to mark the partnership, representatives from both organisations signed a five-year Platform Agreement that will pair QBRI’s equipment with Sengenics’ KREX protein array technology to facilitate autoantibody disease biomarker discovery research. The agreement covers QBRI’s three research centres – Cancer, Diabetes, and Neurological Disorders.
Through this agreement, QBRI will serve as the sole provider of the service in Qatar, with exclusive licensing rights for the Mena region, India, Pakistan, and Turkey.
The vice-president for research, development and innovation (RDI) at Qatar Foundation Dr Richard O’Kennedy, said: “Through partnerships with leading international companies such as Sengenics, we aim to build initiatives that address the most pressing local and global challenges from novel perspectives. Such empowering collaborations, align strategically with our research, development, and innovation objectives, and help us create opportunities that have the potential to shape our present and future.”
Speaking about the agreement, the executive director of QBRI Dr Omar El-Agnaf, said: “Establishing the QBRI-Sengenics platform within our lab space serves the institute especially well because it brings the technology closer to the researchers, thus increasing the prospect of novel and impactful discoveries.”
Commenting on the agreement signing, chief commercial officer at Sengenics Johan Poole-Johnson, said: “Our fundamental aim going forward is to translate the output of KREX research directly to patients, leading to either earlier diagnosis of life-threatening conditions or delivering the vision of precision medicine. The establishment of QBRI as the Centre of Excellence for Proteomics Research in the Middle East will enhance QBRIs capabilities as a standalone centre.” – QNA
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