Massive underrepresentation of Arabs in genomic studies of common disease

Abstract

Abstract Arabs represent 5% of the world population and have a high prevalence of common disease, yet remain greatly underrepresented in genome-wide association studies, where only 1 in 600 individuals are Arab. We highlight the persistent and unaddressed underrepresentation of Arabs in genomic databases and discuss its impact on public health genomics and missed opportunities for biological discovery.

Keywords

• Arab
• Middle East
• Underrepresentation
• Diversity
• Genomic
• Polygenic score