Profile

Prof Khalid Fakhro is the Chief of Research and Chair of the Precision Medicine Program at Sidra Medicine, the largest tertiary care women and children hospital in Qatar. In addition to his administrative responsibility overseeing translational research, Dr Fakhro leads the Laboratory of Genomic Medicine, which focuses on bringing emerging genomic technologies from the lab close to the patient’s bedside. Over the past decade, his group has sequenced thousands of genomes from patients and volunteers across the Middle East, leading gene discovery efforts for a wide range of rare disorders, as well as landmark studies on population structure, genome structural variation, and the role of Islamic ethics in genome research. To date, his lab has been awarded competitive grants exceeding $11m to study genome structure and the genetic etiology of rare diseases including Autism, and their discoveries have featured in high-impact journals worldwide. In addition to research and hospital duties, Dr Fakhro serves multiple leadership roles in Qatar’s thriving biomedical ecosystem, including as Board Member of the Qatar Precision Medicine Institute, and Adjunct Faculty at both Weill-Cornell Medical College and Hamad Bin Khalifa University, where he both teaches and mentors graduate students in genomics and precision medicine.