Thumbay Group Lays the Foundation Stone for a Research Centre in Ajman to Advance the Future of Medicine

Thumbay Group celebrated the laying of the foundation stone for the Thumbay International Research Centre in the Al Jurf area of Ajman, in the presence of His Excellency Sheikh Dr. Majid bin Saeed Al Nuaimi, Head of the Court of His Highness the Ruler of Ajman, and Dr. Amin Hussein Al Amiri, Assistant Undersecretary for the Health Regulation Sector at the Ministry of Health and Prevention — as part of the Group’s journey towards advancing medical research and fostering innovation.

The new centre aims to bring together scientific discovery, diagnostics, and clinical care under one roof, and to promote fruitful collaboration among researchers, physicians, and innovators in the field of healthcare.

The research facility comprises six floors and spans an area of approximately 3,000 square metres. By virtue of its location within a healthcare and academic institution, the centre will enable research teams to work side by side with clinical practitioners from its very first day of operation.

The centre has been designed to support all stages of scientific research. The ground floor will house a lecture hall with a capacity of 110 seats and a shared central imaging facility. The first floor will contain foundational laboratories, an incubator centre, and an advanced augmented and virtual reality laboratory. The second floor will be dedicated to general laboratories, the third to experimental oncology research, the fourth to genomics and next-generation sequencing technologies and bioinformatics, whilst the fifth floor will encompass integrated pre-clinical research facilities, including animal facilities and a specialised zebrafish research unit.

The Thumbay International Research Centre will serve as the permanent home for scientific research activities at Gulf Medical University, supporting faculty members, researchers, and students across the colleges of Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Health Sciences, Nursing, Veterinary Medicine, and Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare. The centre will also house the Thumbay Institute for Precision Medicine as its primary entity, which currently operates within the University’s existing facilities.

The centre will further bring together health technology entrepreneurs from the GMU Startup Lab and the Thumbay Institute for AI in Healthcare alongside PhD researchers, genomics specialists, and clinical teams — creating a collaborative innovation ecosystem that is rare in the region.

Dr. Thumbay Moideen, Founder President of the Group, stated: “Over the past three decades, we have invested in building hospitals and healthcare services. This research centre represents the next chapter of our journey, as our vision is centred on bringing together discovery, diagnosis, and treatment.”

Manda Venkatramana, President of Gulf Medical University, said: “The new centre will provide faculty members and students with the infrastructure needed to conduct internationally competitive research, and will firmly place Gulf Medical University on the path to becoming a leading research institution. Today, this vision takes a significant and important step forward.”

Salem Shuaib, Director of the Thumbay Institute for Precision Medicine Research, said: “The new centre provides specialised infrastructure for combined immunotherapy studies, advanced genomics, liquid biopsy research, and pre-clinical studies supported by a comprehensive zebrafish platform. We are now in a position to implement several initiatives, including the region’s first liquid biopsy programme and a genetics collaboration on diabetes and cancer with the Regional Cancer Research Centre.”

Upon completion, the Thumbay International Research Centre will support a number of pioneering initiatives, including the PhD programme in Precision Medicine, the Future Scientists in the UAE awareness programme, and the Annual Research Day of Gulf Medical University, in addition to strengthening the international research collaboration network that the centre will lead.

The centre will also be closely linked to the integrated research ecosystem of Gulf Medical University, encompassing the Thumbay Institute for Population Health, the Thumbay Institute for AI in Healthcare, the Thumbay Institute for Clinical Simulation, and Thumbay Laboratories, whose diagnostic services will support the centre’s genomics and precision medicine programmes.

The foundation stone ceremony witnessed the announcement by Thumbay Group of the second edition of the Thumbay International Research Grant, with funding of AED 3 million to support 13 research projects led by researchers from 26 countries, in collaboration with Gulf Medical University. These projects cover diverse vital fields, including precision oncology, drug discovery, cochlear implants, artificial intelligence in medical education, veterinary diabetes, and others — all of which will benefit from the new research infrastructure. This initiative comes within the framework of the Group’s collaboration with a distinguished array of global academic and medical institutions, including Harvard Medical School, Baylor University, the University of Washington, the University of Arizona in the United States, the University of Waterloo in Canada, Policlinico in Italy, Erasmus Rotterdam in the Netherlands, as well as the University of Regensburg, Hannover Medical School, and Charité Hospital in Germany, and the University of Lublin in Poland.

The ceremony also saw Gulf Medical University confer honorary doctorate degrees upon Mr K.E. Faizal, Founder and Chairman of KEF Holdings and the Faizal and Shabana Foundation, and Mr Mohammed Miran, Founder and Chairman of Electric Way — in recognition of their distinguished contributions to industry, philanthropy, and community development.