Dr. Nahla Afifi, Director of Qatar Biobank, a member of the Qatar Foundation, has been awarded the ISBER 2022 Award for Outstanding Achievement in Biobanking. She received the award during ISBER annual meeting “ISBER2022” as a recognition for her efforts and continuous work as Qatar Biobank Director, and how her work impacts the biobanking field, in Qatar and worldwide. As Qatar Biobank has been part of almost every local and international event and activity that aims to impact and develop not only biobanking but also scientific research and precision medicine.
Dr. Nahla received the award while attending the in-person international biobanking conference that is ISBER’s Annual Meeting in Atlanta, USA from May 17-20, 2022, where the attendees were able to meet the experts in the field to exchange information and discuss different topics such as, the latest technologies in the field, the latest scientific research results and other important points that contribute to the exchange of experiences and thus contribute in developing the fields of biobanking, scientific research, and precision medicine, which are closely related and highly integrated, globally.
Dr. Nahla expressed her happiness about receiving the award, saying: “I am grateful for receiving this award in recognition of my work with Qatar Biobank team and what we always strive to achieve. It is an honor to see the results of our work yield remarkable contributions in the field of biobanking. This is an award for all Qatar biobank team who work so hard together under the umbrella of Qatar Foundation. I would like to thank them all and assure you that they all deserve this award.”
She continued, “Qatar Biobank will continue to work and contribute to the biobanking community, to support and develop the health care and precision medicine in Qatar and around the world. We promise to be an example to follow worldwide for many years to come.”
Dr. Nahla Afifi joined Qatar Biobank in 2013 as an education and scientific manager, then became the Director of Qatar Biobank in 2017, due to her expertise and her numerous grants and published research in biobanking, biomedicine and health sciences. She obtained her Certificate “Principles in Biobanking” from Luxembourg University and is also a member of many prestigious international societies in the field, such as: AAA, ASIP, ISBER, and ESBB.
Dr. Nahla Afifi started her academic career as a medical researcher in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) in New York, then served as an assistant professor of anatomy and embryology at Ain Shams University, Egypt, and at Dubai Medical College for Girls, UAE. In 1999, she joined Qatar University’s Biomedical Sciences Program and was promoted to associate professor of anatomy and embryology, and to full professor in 2007, then she served as head of the Department of Health Sciences from 2007.
ISBER is the a global organization that addresses scientific, technical, legal, and ethical issues for biobanks and biorepositories and fosters collaboration between different biobanks to create education and training opportunities. ISBER provides a forum for the dissemination of state-of-the-art policies, processes, and research findings and provides an international showcase for innovative technologies, products, and services to promote best practices that cut across the broad range of repositories that ISBER serves.
