Lihadh Al-Gazali

Professor Lihadh Al-Gazali MBChB MSc FRCP FRCPCH is a renowned professor in clinical genetics and paediatrics. Her main area of interest is identifying new inherited disorders in Arab populations clinically and at the molecular level.

Biography

Lihadh Al-Gazali was born and raised in Baghdad, Iraq. Her mother was an educationalist and her father an Army judge in Baghdad. She received higher education in Germany.

Professor Al-Gazali studied paediatrics at the University of Iraq in Baghdad. She received her Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery from Baghdad Medical College in 1973. She married and had a child before moving to the United Kingdom in 1976 to study paediatrics and clinical genetics. She continued her education in Leeds and Edinburgh, living and practicing until 1990. She then moved to Al Ain, becoming an assistant professor at the Department of Paediatrics of United Arab Emirates University. She played a key role in establishing the Centre for Arab Genomic Studies, a registry for monitoring birth defects in the United Arab Emirates. In 1995 she set up the first registry for birth defects in the UAE. This registry was the first birth defects registry in an Arab country and the first to become a member of the International Clearing House of Birth Defects in Rome, Italy. She became an associate professor in 1997.

She founded the Clinical Genetics Service, which offers support and counselling for families affected by congenital disorders in the UAE. She has published over 130 scientific papers. With her colleague Bassam Ali she has identified genes for about 15 disorders specific to Emirati families. Al-Gazali identified and named the genetic disorder CHIME-like syndrome.

Professor Al-Gazali played an important role as a founding member of the Centre for Arab Genomic Studies in Dubai, which was established in 2004 and is  an arm of the Sheikh Hamdan Award for Medical Sciences. She is now a member of the Executive Board and plays a leading role in the organisation. The centre’s flagship project is the Catalogue for Transmission Genetics in Arabs database, which is the largest archive in the world for genetic disorders in Arab populations with more than 1,600 entries on inherited disorders. It is now an important research tool used by countless genetic scientists in the Middle East and throughout the world.

Professor Al-Gazali has described more than 40 inherited diseases. The genes causing many of these disorders have also been identified. Two of these disorders have been named in her honour - Al-Gazali syndrome (OMIM 609465), which causes growth problems and early death; and lethal short limb skeletal dysplasia-Al-Gazali type (OMIM 601356), which is characterised by eye and skeletal abnormalities and a short life expectancy. 

Professor Al-Gazali has written more than 200 papers on clinical genetics in prestigious international publications such as the British Medical Journal, Cell, Nature, Science, Human Mutation, the Journal of Biosocial Science, American Journal of Human Genetics and Human Molecular Genetics among many others. In 2013, as one of the most renowned and well-respected genetic scientists in the Middle East, she was invited by Science journal to write a commentary to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Human Genome Project, alongside other world leading scientists. She was also invited by Nature journal to join other world-leading scientists in speaking up for equality in science for women. To date, she has given more than 70 presentations at medical and scientific conferences around the world.

Professor Al-Gazali received the Distinguished Performance Award in Research and Clinical Services of UAE University in 2003. In 2008 she received a L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science "for her contributions to the characterization of inherited disorders." She also was awarded the Hamdan Award for Honoring Individuals Working in the Field of Medicine & Health. Professor Al-Gazali is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and a fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in London; and is listed in the Who’s Who of the World and Who’s Who of the World in Science and Medicine

Personal life

Professor Al-Gazali is married to Wessam Shather and has two daughters and a son.

Selected publications

• Baasanjav, Sevjidmaa; Al-Gazali, Lihadh; et al. (July 2011). "Faulty Initiation of Proteoglycan Synthesis Causes Cardiac and Joint Defects". The American Journal of Human Genetics. 89 (1): 15–27. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2011.05.021. PMC 3135799. PMID 21763480.
• Akawi, NA; Al-Gazali, L; Ali, BR (August 2012). "Clinical and molecular analysis of UAE fibrochondrogenesis patients expands the phenotype and reveals two COL11A1 homozygous null mutations". Clinical Genetics. 82 (2): 147–156. doi:10.1111/j.1399-0004.2011.01734.x. PMID 21668896.
• Al-Gazali, Lihadh; Walsh, Christopher A.; et al. (December 2010). "A Homozygous Mutation in the Tight-Junction Protein JAM3 Causes Hemorrhagic Destruction of the Brain, Subependymal Calcification, and Congenital Cataracts". The American Journal of Human Genetics. 87 (6): 882–889. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2010.10.026. PMC 2997371. PMID 21109224.
• Al-Gazali, L.; Woods, C. G. (26 October 2010). "A novel NGF mutation clarifies the molecular mechanism and extends the phenotypic spectrum of the HSAN5 neuropathy". Journal of Medical Genetics. 48 (2): 131–135. doi:10.1136/jmg.2010.081455. PMC 3030776. PMID 20978020.