Overview

Ibn Sina, known in the West as Avicenna, was a polymath and the foremost physician and philosopher of his time. He wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, including The Book of Healing, a vast philosophical and scientific encyclopedia, and The Canon of Medicine, which became a standard medical text at many medieval universities throughout Europe.

The Dubai Harvard Foundation for Medical Research (DHFMR) supports cutting-edge collaborative research, and seeks to establish sustainable research and education programs focused on diseases relevant to the population in the broader Middle East region. Through these activities, DHFMR enables the region’s best minds to focus on a new era of scientific promise, while contributing to advances that ease the suffering caused by disease.

DHFMR is designed to attract the best training, research, and health care practices to Dubai, the Gulf and Middle East Region. The scope for research is broad, and will take full advantage of the extensive global network of expert faculty, researchers and educators at Harvard Medical School, Harvard University and other counterparts in the Middle East.

The Foundation is creating a permanent endowment to:

  • Build human capital by identifying, supporting and training medical and scientific leaders for Dubai, the UAE, the Gulf and Middle East Region
  • Fund collaborative research initiatives and research fellowships directed at priority disease areas for the region
  • Support collaborative research between Harvard Medical School research centers and labs in the region that will build sustainable research programs in the Middle East
  • Develop a sustainable infrastructure in Dubai for an international exchange of scholars

The effects of DHFMR’s support of research programs and individual researchers will be felt throughout the region. Harvard Medical School has already pioneered strategies to translate science into clinical applications and treatments to benefit patients. Research supported by DHFMR will address some of the most pressing healthcare needs of the Arabian Gulf, such as diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurological disorders.

DHFMR will replicate the Harvard Medical School research model in Dubai and the Middle East. The impact on Dubai and the UAE’s economy will truly be significant, consolidating Dubai’s and the UAE’s status as a regional incubator of innovation and enterprise. DHFMR will take full advantage of the continuous innovations occurring within Harvard and regional medical communities. Young investigators, physicians and researchers from the region will benefit from, and augment, these discoveries, assuring applications that are relevant to the population of Dubai, the UAE and the Middle East.