DDI Harbors the Largest Biobank in Kuwait with over 500,000 samples
The Dasman Diabetes Biobank plays a pivotal role within the Dasman Diabetes Institute, serving as a central repository for numerous projects and initiatives. Its significance lies in its vast collect
Implementation of National Diabetes Registry in Kuwait
Diabetes is a chronic disease that requires continuous engagement with healthcare services. To establish a comprehensive profile of individuals with diabetes and monitor their clinical outcomes, incl
DDI Functional Genomics Team Has Knocked-out GCGR in Zebrafish
The Glucagon receptor, GCGR, is a membranous receptor that plays an essential role in regulating glycemia. The main action of glucagon is to stimulate hepatic glucose production by increasing glycoge
New Immunophenotypic Profiling helps identify Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) patients at risk of severe COVID-19
The Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Department at DDI published an article that investigated the effects of increased toxicity caused by palmitic acid (PA) on insulin regulation. PA, a type of f
New Immunophenotypic Profiling helps identifying T2D patients at risk of severe COVID-19
This study was a collaboration between Sorbonne Université and the Public Hospitals of Paris (Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris, AP-HP). It investigated the characteristics of immune cells in h
GLOBAL COLLABORATIVE APPROACH IN DISCOVERING GENETIC DETERMINANTS OF METABOLIC DISORDERS
There is currently a global effort to apply large-scale genomic science and associated technologies to further the understanding of disease pathogenesis in diverse populations. These efforts focus on
Research During 2021 in a Glance
Number and Impact factor of DDI’s published articles from 2016 until 2021. Here we highlight insightful published work in the department of Genetics and Bioinformatics: MMP9 is a molecule i
Scientists at DDI discover a new Branch in the regulation of IL-6 in Fat cells
Kuwait is amongst top-ranking nations afflicted badly by obesity epidemic and its wide-scale complications such as increased blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, digestive problems, certain cancers
Exploring the Link Between Genes, Diabetes and COVID-19 Outcomes
Prof. Fahd Almulla and his colleagues investigate what makes some cases of COVID-19 more severe. A striking feature of COVID-19 has been the variability in outcome, which ranges from silent infect
Elevated resting heart as a predictor of cardiovascular risk in Healthy Obese individuals
The autonomic nervous system is a control system that governs body activities such as digestion, respiratory rate, pupillary response, and heart rate in a mostly unconscious manner. This system i
Obesity and Mitochondria – Research during 2020 in a glance
Do you inherit your obesity from your mom? Maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is used to trace the kinship through the female line, it accumulates mutations over several generations. C
Heritability and Metabolic Traits – Research during 2020 in a glance
Number, Impact factor, and citations of DDI’s published articles have increased significantly during 2020 as compared to previous years. Here we highlight some of the published work in the dep
COVID19: N720D AN ACE2 VARIANT WITH HIGHER AFFINITY TO TMPRSS2
The rate of infection and mortality of SARS-CoV-2 varies based on the geographical spread of the virus as a consequence of several factors such as isolation, quarantine, differences in the genetic ma
Markers for Inflammation in Obesity and Diabetes
DDI finds potentially critical biomarker of metabolic inflammation in obesity and diabetes Obesity, an important risk factor in the development of diabetes, is often associated with chronic infl
Metabolic disorders In kuwait – are our Ancestral genes to Blame?
Why is the prevalence of obesity and metabolic disorders so high in the Middle East? Are diet and lifestyle choices the sole culprits? A new study1 conducted at Dasman Diabetes Institute may have fou
Immunometabolism – A Promising Route For Drug Development
Immunometabolism has emerged recently as a very exciting field of research in immunology that investigates the interplay between immunological and metabolic processes. Interest in this field is gaini
Spratt-dawley Rat Models For Diet-induced Obesity Leading To Hypertension And Diabetes.
BY DR. ALPHONSE T. THANGAVEL By performing an epidemiology study using cross-sectional data from Kuwait Health Network, we demonstrated recently that the association of higher body mass index (B
FTO SNP RS1421085 Increases Body Weight, Soft Lean Mass And Total Body Water Via Interaction With Ghrelin And Apolipoproteins.
Prashantha Hebbar@, Mohamed Abu-Farha@, Anwar Mohammad, Fadi Alkayal, Motasem Melhem, Jehad Abubaker, Fahd Al-Mulla, Thangavel Alphonse Thanaraj* As an application of the SNP genotyping pipeline t
MIR-181D Plays A Protective Role Against Obesity By Regulating The Activity Of Angptl
Mohamed Abu-Farha, Preethi Cherian, Irina Al-Khairi, Rasheeba Nizam, Abdullah Alkandari, Hossein Arefanian, Jaakko Tuomilehto, Fahd Al-Mulla & Jehad Abubaker Lipid metabolism is an important f
Genetic Variability In Protein-coding Regions Of The Human Genomes From Kuwait
A typical human genome comprises around 3 billion letters (nucleotide bases); however, only a tiny fraction (~1%) of the bases constitute DNA regions that code for proteins. Genetic variability in su