Hassan Al-Ali

Hassan Al-Ali is the Chief Scientific Officer of Truvitech, LLC and a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine. During his postdoctoral studies in the lab of Drs. John Bixby and Vance Lemmon at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, he developed a novel drug target identification strategy that combines cell-based screening, biochemical target-based profiling, and machine learning. Axons of central nervous system (CNS) neurons have poor regenerative capacity, which substantially hampers functional recovery from CNS injuries. The etiology of the problem is complex and mediated by known and unknown signaling pathways, and this necessitates engaging more than one drug target to achieve clinically significant regeneration. Dr. Al-Ali’s methodology has made it possible to identify several pharmacologically responsive targets (and anti-targets), and to ultimately discover a single compound with outstanding co-selectivity for several of the identified targets (beneficial polypharmacology). The compound showed high efficacy in cell-based and animal models of regeneration and functional recovery and is now in preclinical development. Dr. Al-Ali is continuing the development of his methodology into a standalone platform to advance drug discovery in other areas including cancer, liver disease, and kidney disease.