Ahmad Teebi

Ahmad S. Teebi (22 July 1949 – 22 July 2010) was a Lebanon-born clinical geneticist who studied and practiced in several countries, ending his career in Canada and the United States.

Biography

Admad Teebi was born in Beirut, Lebanon, to a family of Palestinian origin. He received his primary education in Lebanon and in Kuwait. He obtained his medical degree from Cairo University (1973), then studied Pediatrics in Kuwait. He studied at University College of Dublin in 1976–77, receiving a Diploma of Child Health in 1977.^[1] He began his medical residency at the Kuwait Medical Genetics Center (1977-1980), then completed it at the University of British Columbia (studying Medical Genetics and Pediatrics in 1986), and in the United States at Yale University (1990-1993).

In 1983, Teebi received a DHCG from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

In 1992, Teebi was asked to join the Division of Medical Genetics at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He worked there as an Associate Professor of Pediatrics from 1993–98.

In 1998, he moved to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, named as a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, in the Division of Clinical and Metabolic Genetics at the Hospital for Sick Children and in the Department of Molecular and Medical Genetics at the University of Toronto. In 2006 he moved to the Departments of Pediatrics and Genetic Medicine at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York. In 2008, he became vice-chairman of that department.

While working in Canada and the United States, Teebi maintained his interest in the advancement of medical genetics in the Middle East. He headed the Arab Genetics Consortium. He was also the original curator (at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto) of the now-defunct Arab Genetic Disease Database (www.agddb.org). In 2008 he was appointed Professor and Director of the Pediatrics Service of Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar.

He married Amal Qudsi. They had four children: sons Saeed and Basel; daughters Asil and Asma.

Teebi died on his birthday in 2010, at Trillium Health Centre in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, from complications of cancer. He was 61 years of age.^[1]

Publications and initiatives

Teebi had nearly 300 articles published, and over 25 chapters included in significant textbooks.^[1] His most significant contribution was arguably the publication (in 1997, with T.I. Farag as co-editor) on Genetic Disorders Among Arab Populations. It received a second-issue posthumous publication in October 2010. He had over 90 entries in the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man created by Victor A. McKusick.

While serving as an Instructor in Genetics and Pediatrics at Yale, Teebi helped found the Middle East Genetic Association in the United States (MEGA). He was the Association's first president (1997–99). That association held several conferences in the Middle East, bringing together Middle Eastern geneticists and scientists. He worked to develop or further the organization of important congresses in Human and Medical Genetics in various cities of the Arab world, including the Joint Symposium of the Institut Pasteur de Tunis and MEGA (1997). He worked for the establishment and progress of genetic programs in Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, where he founded the Genetic Counseling Program at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Riyadh.

Teebi spent several years on the editorial boards of medical and scientific journals, including the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Medical Genetics (2004–10) and Clinical Genetics (2005–10). He was a Founding and Editorial Board member of Clinical Dysmorphology (1991–95).

Teebi founded the first Arab neonatal screening program in Kuwait. He also greatly advanced the activities of Kuwait Medical Genetic center. The center was started in February 1979, and was officially inaugurated in November 1980, but his arrival in 1981 broadened its study of medical genetics, as he worked to establish genetic services in the Middle East. He spent eight months in Saudi Arabia to develop medical genetics services, including the foundation of clinical genetics training programs and genetic counseling programs—the first of its kind in the Middle East.

He was instrumental in educating many students over the years while in the Middle-East and North America—many of whom are now prominent scientists and educators.

Honors and awards

Many of the syndromes that Teebi studied and wrote about were ultimately named after him.^[1][2]

Teebi has received several awards, including:

• Kuwait Prize (1989 – for outstanding contribution in clinical and human genetics in the Arab world)
• Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science (KFAS)(1989 – for contribution in clinical and human genetics in the Arab World)
• Rammal Euroscience Award (2001 – for recognition of both scientific achievements and commitment to the cause of Mediterranean cooperation).

Teebi was a member of several scientific societies and study groups, including the HUGO mutation database initiative. In 2002 he was elected as a member of the European Academy of Science.

References