Genetics and genomic medicine in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia (officially, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) was established as a sovereign country in 1932, by its founder King Abdulaziz Al-Saud who led a successful campaign that lasted 30 years following the conquest of Riyadh (official capital) to unite large swathes of the Arabian Peninsula. With an area of 2,150,000 km, Saudi Arabia occupies 80% of historical Arabia and is the 13th largest country in the world (Fig. 1). The King in Saudi Arabia also presides over the Council of Ministers, which represents the executive branch of Government although it also has the power to approve and veto legislations proposed by the Shura Council (Parliament), which has a largely advisory role. The presence of the Islamic holiest sites in Mecca and Medina has endowed Saudi Arabia with a special status to the world’s one billion Muslims since its establishment (the King of Saudi Arabia carries the official title of The Custodian of The Two Holy Mosques). With the discovery of massive oil reserves and other natural resources shortly after it was founded, Saudi Arabia has enjoyed vast revenues that made it possible to implement a very ambitious social and economic modernization strategy that transformed a mostly illiterate population to one with a literacy rate of 94.4% (98.1% for those <50 years of age who represent 75% of the population), and to become a member of G20, a forum of the world’s 20 major economies.