Abu Dhabi signs 22 life sciences agreements, with AI running through genomics, drug discovery and biobanking

The Department of Health – Abu Dhabi (DoH) has signed 22 strategic partnerships and agreements during its fifth strategic mission to the United States, with artificial intelligence featured across genomics, drug discovery, virtual patient modelling and biomanufacturing rather than as a standalone track.

The delegation, spanning San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles, brought together more than 40 senior representatives from 16 Abu Dhabi government, healthcare, research and industry organisations for over 30 meetings and 15 site visits with US healthcare and life sciences counterparts.

On the AI side specifically:

• DoH signed collaborations with Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis and Eli Lilly to expand AI-enabled genomics capabilities alongside research into disease genetics, obesity and Alzheimer’s disease.
• M42 announced a partnership between Abu Dhabi Biobank and BioTwin to expand Virtual Human Twin technology in the UAE — a step toward AI-based modelling of individual patients using biobank data.
• Masdar City, M42 and Attentive Science launched Biosphere Labs, laboratory infrastructure intended to accelerate biotechnology research and commercialisation.
• The delegation’s broader US engagements covered AI-enabled drug discovery and gene editing, alongside gene therapies for rare and inherited diseases and healthy longevity.

Other deliverables from the mission were not AI-specific but sit within the same ecosystem: a Mubadala Bio agreement with Biosidus on local biologics manufacturing, a Biocom California partnership establishing a life sciences corridor between Abu Dhabi and California, and a collaboration with Bascom Palmer Eye Institute to establish the Middle East’s first Eye Bank in Abu Dhabi. Hub71-backed BioSapien has also advanced to Phase 1 clinical trials.

The mission was coordinated through the Abu Dhabi Investment Office’s Health, Endurance, Longevity and Medicine (HELM) Cluster, which connects research, investment, commercialisation and healthcare delivery.

Delegation members included Abu Dhabi Investment Office, M42, Hub71, New York University Abu Dhabi, Masdar City, Khalifa University, KEZAD, PureHealth, Mubadala Bio, Arcera and the Institute for Healthier Living Abu Dhabi.