Abu Dhabi Biobank partners with AstraZeneca to advance AI precision medicine in UAE

UAE—Abu Dhabi Biobank and AstraZeneca have partnered to advance predictive healthcare in the UAE through artificial intelligence (AI), genomic research and clinical data integration, with the collaboration announced at the Abu Dhabi Future Health Summit 2026.

The initiative, involving the Department of Health Abu Dhabi (DoH), M42 and AstraZeneca, will focus on earlier disease detection, rare disease research and the development of precision healthcare approaches tailored to regional populations.

AI and genomics to support early detection

The collaboration will assess MILTON, AstraZeneca’s AI-powered disease prediction platform, for use in UAE populations, focusing initially on type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Both conditions contribute significantly to the regional and global burden of disease, creating demand for tools that can identify risks before symptoms emerge.

MILTON analyses routinely collected health data to identify patterns associated with future disease.

Evaluating its performance in regional populations could help researchers determine how effectively the platform predicts disease risk among people whose genetic and clinical characteristics may be underrepresented in global datasets.

The initiative will also combine genomic, clinical and phenotypic data to improve understanding of rare diseases.

Linking genetic findings with patients’ medical records could help researchers identify at-risk individuals earlier, investigate disease pathways, and support the development of diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.

Abu Dhabi Biobank connects population health data

Abu Dhabi Biobank, a strategic initiative of DoH and M42, will provide the research infrastructure for the collaboration.

Its resources include more than five million biological samples, genomic information from the national Emirati Genome Program, longitudinal clinical records and population health data.

Integrating these resources will allow researchers to examine relationships between genetic variation, disease development and clinical outcomes.

The approach could also help close gaps in biomedical evidence by generating findings that better reflect Middle Eastern populations.

Dr Fahed Al Marzooqi, chief executive officer of Integrated Health Solutions at M42, said the healthcare sector was entering a period when data could help identify disease risks before clinical symptoms appear.

He added that Abu Dhabi Biobank brings together biological samples, genomic information and clinical insights to support predictive research, assess emerging technologies such as MILTON and inform more targeted healthcare interventions.

Implications for precision medicine

Slavé Petrovski, vice-president of the Centre for Genomic Research at AstraZeneca, said the collaboration would help generate high-quality, UAE-specific evidence to inform national health policy and strengthen clinical decision-making.

He added that working with M42 would enable AstraZeneca to apply advanced analytics, genomics and its MILTON platform to identify population health risks earlier and develop strategies to improve outcomes in the UAE.

The partnership reflects growing investment in data-driven healthcare, as biopharmaceutical companies and health systems explore how genomic research and AI can support prevention, risk assessment and more personalised treatment.

Evaluating predictive models against regional clinical data will be important in determining their reliability and suitability for local healthcare settings.

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