Editorially curated · qa-baraka-autism-study
BARAKA-Qatar Study
Qatar's national autism research resource combines deep clinical and environmental characterization with family whole-genome sequencing and a longitudinal biorepository to discover genetic architecture and support personalized care.
01 / Project overview
What the record establishes.
- Geographic scope
- National Qatar autism-family cohort with global MSSNG data federation
- Project type
- family-based autism biorepository and whole-genome cohort
- Research domain
- neurodevelopmental disease genomics and precision medicine
- Years
- 2018–
- Lifecycle status
- active and enrolling
- Status basis
- Qatar Foundation describes the program as a current public research offering, and Sidra reported continued family enrollment and cohort expansion in April 2024.
- Status evidence date
- 2026-08-15
- Scale
- The first published release covered 100 families and 372 individuals; by 2024 approximately 350 families and 1,500 participants had enrolled, with Sidra reporting whole-genome sequencing across more than 350 families.
02 / Organizations and population
Who and what the project connects.
- Lead organizations
- Sidra Medicine
- Partner organizations
- The Hospital for Sick Children · Autism Speaks MSSNG · Qatar Foundation · Google Cloud
- Organism / population
- children and adults with autism spectrum disorder and their family members, predominantly of Arab ancestry
03 / Data and access
What exists and how it can be reached.
Data types
- family whole-genome sequencing
- clinical phenotypes
- electronic health records
- blood
- plasma
- cell lines
- RNA
- saliva
- microbiome samples
- environmental questionnaires
Data access
Genomic data are contributed to the controlled-access MSSNG research platform; local biospecimens and linked clinical data require Sidra ethics and collaboration approval.
Identifiers
No public accession or identifier is listed for this record.
04 / Evidence and provenance
Why the record is included.
Inclusion basis
National, longitudinal, family-based genomics cohort and biorepository with hundreds of families and a controlled international data resource.
Editorial note
The 2023 paper describes the first 100-family data release, whereas later institutional sources report the much larger enrolled/sequenced cohort. Do not add these counts. Possible participant overlap with the separate QBRI-QGP autism trio cohort has not been publicly resolved.
Sources
- primary record source Verified 2026-08-15
- additional record source Verified 2026-08-15
- additional record source Verified 2026-08-15
- additional record source Verified 2026-08-15
- additional record source Verified 2026-08-15
- additional record source Verified 2026-08-15
Release v0.2.0