Center Divisional Structure
Research & Development Unit

The ECO will be the educational arm of the CIPM. ECO will actively participate in the modernization of the teaching modules of King Abdulaziz University.

Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis

The Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) research theme focuses on an important area for the delivery of personalized treatment at the pre-implantation stage. New technology will be transferred that involves the detection of genetic mutations at the embryo stage and help with the selection of mutation-free embryos for implantation by IVF treatment. This research theme will focus on the genetic mutations underlying Thalassemia. Technology perfected with Thalassemia will then be applied for other debilitating congenital syndromes and diseases.

Personalized Oncology

Personalized oncology is a novel concept and branch of personalized medicine. It is built around the concept that each individual solid tumor and hematologic malignancy in each person is unique in cause, rate of progression and responsiveness to surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. This research theme will focus on the utilization of high-throughput screening tools (whole-genome sequencing, whole-exome sequencing, transcriptome and methylome analysis) and translate the massive potential of the data obtained through them into tangible results for a selected group of cancer patients. We aim to apply “Personalized Oncology” and setup its infrastructure in a unique collaboration exercise between scientists and clinicians.

Transnational Medical Applications

There is a need to implement the technology of high-throughput genomic screenings in order to better understand the genetic makeup of common afflictions in Saudi Arabia. This will help us to start implementing the novel concept of personalized medicine in Saudi Arabia ultimately benefiting the patient, the society and the Kingdom as a whole. The main thrust of this research theme is to develop customized screening panels for Saudi patients, thus reducing cost and speeding up diagnosis.

Innovative Molecular Pathology

Innovative Molecular Pathology will primarily focus on the cataloging of human tissues from various diseases in order to establish a representative cohort of the Saudi population. The main thrust of this theme is formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissues often preserved by the pathology departments at different Saudi hospitals. In addition to the tissues, clinicopathological data will be collected in specialized database developed by the TIC.