MBZUAI launches long-term study to advance disease prediction and preventive healthcare in the UAE

Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) has launched a long-term deep phenotyping study in Abu Dhabi to better understand the genetic, biological, and lifestyle factors that shape health and disease in the UAE population, supporting future research into disease prediction, prevention, and precision medicine. 

Findings from the study are expected to support the UAE’s agenda for earlier detection of disease and risk, and for preventive healthcare built on data. The UAE’s diverse pool of citizens and residents from over 200 nationalities makes the resulting dataset scientifically valuable in ways that existing cohorts cannot match, with the potential to inform healthcare policy, clinical care, and drug development. 

MBZUAI leads this study in the UAE and will run it over 25 years. Each participant is profiled across medical history, lifestyle, advanced imaging, blood tests, continuous glucose and sleep monitoring, alongside multi-omics data—including genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and metagenomics. Using this data, researchers aim to develop AI models to better understand disease onset and progression, with the long-term goal of supporting earlier detection and prevention. 

H.E. Dr Fatima Al Kaabi, Director General of the Emirates Drug Establishment and Affiliated Associate Professor of Personalized Medicine at MBZUAI, said: “The UAE has cemented its leadership in population genomics through the Emirati Genome Programme. This study marks an important step forward in building an integrated health knowledge base that brings together clinical, biological and lifestyle data collected over an extended period, while harnessing artificial intelligence to transform these datasets into scientific insights that deepen our understanding of how diseases emerge and progress.” 

Al Kaabi added: “The strategic value of this study lies in its ability to generate scientific evidence that is more closely aligned with the health characteristics and demographic diversity of the UAE population. This will help develop more precise preventive models, strengthen data-driven healthcare decision-making, and open new horizons for research in precision medicine, preventive healthcare and pharmaceutical sciences.” 

Beyond the contribution to science, every participant receives personalized research insights on their data through a secure individual study portal, which they can share with their physician. 

All participant biological samples are retained in a secure UAE-based healthcare facility. Personal identifying information is separated from research data before any scientific analysis. 

The study has received approval from the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi’s Health Research and Technology Committee (ADHRTC), the MBZUAI Institutional Review Board and the IHLAD Research Ethics Committee, and is fully compliant with UAE federal and Abu Dhabi local privacy law.  

Participation is free, voluntary, and individuals may withdraw at any time. 

More information at: hpp.mbzuai.ac.ae