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Editorially curated · qa-hmc-qchip-newborn-pilot
HMC Q-Chip Expanded Genomic Newborn Screening Pilot
Pilot tests a Qatar-specific pathogenic-variant array within established newborn screening to identify treatable genetic conditions before symptoms.
01 / Project overview
What the record establishes.
- Geographic scope
- Qatar national newborn-screening infrastructure
- Project type
- newborn genomic screening pilot
- Research domain
- newborn genetics and rare-disease screening
- Years
- 2024–
- Lifecycle status
- pilot launched; subsequent scale not reported
- Status basis
- HMC launched the pilot on 5 March 2024 using Q-Chip on cord blood plus spinal-muscular-atrophy and standard metabolic testing.
- Status evidence date
- 2024-03-05
- Scale
- Q-Chip contains thousands of pathogenic variants but is tailored to selected treatable diseases for this pilot; no enrollment count published.
02 / Organizations and population
Who and what the project connects.
- Lead organizations
- Hamad Medical Corporation Rare Disease Center
- Partner organizations
- Heidelberg University Hospital · Qatar Biobank · Qatar Genome Programme · HMC Diagnostic Genomic Division · HMC Women’s Wellness and Research Center
- Organism / population
- Newborns; umbilical-cord blood samples
03 / Data and access
What exists and how it can be reached.
Data types
- cord-blood DNA
- Q-Chip genotyping
- SMA testing
- metabolic newborn screening
- clinical outcomes
Data access
Clinical/research pilot; no public participant dataset.
Identifiers
No public accession or identifier is listed for this record.
04 / Evidence and provenance
Why the record is included.
Inclusion basis
Named national pilot deploying a population-specific genomic platform in newborn screening.
Editorial note
Distinct from Sidra/BeginNGS NOOR-QATAR, which uses genome sequencing rather than the Q-Chip microarray.
Sources
- primary record source Verified 2026-08-15
Release v0.2.0