Is genetics responsible for type 2 diabetes in Arabs?

2^nd International Conference on Genomics & Pharmacogenomics

September 08-10, 2014 DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Raleigh-Brownstone-University, USA

Khalid Siddiqui

Accepted Abstracts: J Mol Genet Med

Abstract :

With a prevalence rate of more than 25% among adult population, type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a very common disorder in Saudi Arabia, reaching epidemic dimensions. The possible etiological factors involved in the high prevalence of T2D in the Saudis include obesity, poor dietary habits, sedentarily and genetic factors in a population with a high degree of consanguinity. The finding that T2D accumulates in Saudi pedigrees supports further the view that genes have a significant role in the etiology of the disease. The majority of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) using high density Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) microarrays have been mostly limited to populations of European descent so far. It is now time to take lessons from other studies and find out if genetics also plays an important role to reach Type-2 diabetes at epidemic level in Arab population.

Biography :

Khalid Siddiqui pursued his Doctoral degree in the field of Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry as a student of International Max Planck Research School, Germany, and got his degree from JW Goethe University Frankfurt. Following his PhD, he worked as Postdoctoral Research Associate in Faculty of Life Science at The University of Manchester, England. After that he moved to Manipal University Dubai Campus as an Assistant Professor of Biotechnology. He has more than 11 years of research experience in various fields of molecular biology and protein purification. He has received numerous scholarships for his work from scientific organizations from UK and Germany. He also received awards for Keystone symposia for his scientific presentations.