Why the study?
The Middle East struggles with disparities in genomic medicine and is severely underrepresented in global registries, genetic databases, genome-wide association studies, and large-scale genome sequencing studies.
Population
Individuals with inherited cardiac conditions in the Middle East
Underrepresentation of Middle Eastern populations in GWAS limits applicability of genetic risk data; leaves open need for dedicated regional studies.
As a historic cradle of civilization, the Middle East (ME) was once a pioneer in urbanization and human advancement, yet today the region struggles with disparities in genomic medicine. The ME makes up roughly 6% of the world population yet is severely underrepresented in global registries and genetic databases.1 Individuals from the ME have rarely been included in genome-wide association studies (GWASs) over the last 20 years as reflected in GWAS catalog (Figure A)2,3 or in large-scale genome sequencing studies as seen by the very low coverage in reference databases such as gnomAD (Figure B).
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Hajizadah et al. (2026) studied this question.
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