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B.Sc.Pharm - Hebrew University  2007
M.Sc. - Tel-Aviv University 2009
Ph.D. - Technion Institute   2015
Postdoctoral - MIT   2015-2019

Assistant Professor - Hebrew University   2019-present

 

Born and raised in Haifa. Dr. Amal is married to his art therapist wife, Rageda. They live
with their two children, Sama and Adam. In his spare time, Dr. Amal enjoys reading
books and watching sports.

 

Upon graduating, he began his academic journey at the young age of 17.5 years old,
with a first degree in Pharmacy, from the Hebrew University. From there he moved to
Tel Aviv University for his master’s degree in the Faculty of Medicine, where he
investigated the impact of cannabis on memory and cognition. Upon graduating magna cum laude, he moved to Haifa to the Technion Institute, Department of Chemical Engineering, for his doctorate, during which he researched the diagnosis of cancer and other neurological disorders. With several offers for postdoctoral fellowships, Dr. Amal decided that the next stage of his academic journey would be at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston (MIT). It was there that he started his journey working on the autism spectrum disorder and Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Amal was a Senior Postdoctoral Associate at the Biological Engineering Department at MIT and affiliate in the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. 

 

Dr. Amal’s research has been widely published, with more than 23 papers on cancer, autism, Alzheimer’s disease, and other brain disorders; he has been the recipient of many awards. Dr. Amal is a member of many local and international scientific committees and societies. 

 

At MIT, the first paper of his postdoctoral research was published in the Journal of Molecular Psychiatry – the leading journal in Psychiatry. It represented the first literature to link nitric oxide with autism spectrum disorder, a key step towards identifying a drug target for the disorder. He has also worked on Alzheimer’s disease, with his research being published in Translational Psychiatry. Dr. Amal was the recipient of many postdoctoral fellowships including the MIT Technion Postdoctoral Fellowship for the Brightest Students.

 

Currently, Haitham is an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Drug Research, Faculty of Medicine at the Hebrew University. He leads a group of scientists that their ultimate goal is to discover therapeutics and biomarkers for autism spectrum disorder, brain disorders, and other diseases.

 

Recently, He received many awards/grants: Received the prestigious Krill Prize by
the Wolf Foundation, Listed among the 40 under 40 most promising young people by The
Marker Magazine, US Department of Defense (DoD) grant, the MIT-Technion Postdoc Fellowship,
Maof Research Grant, the Golda Meir Lectureship Award, the Brettle Center for Research
Award, the HUJI-UK Spine seed fund, the VATAT Fellowship for both outstanding PhD and
postdoc researchers, and more.

 

The Amal Group has multinational collaborations including MIT, Scripps Institute in San Diego , and Imperial College London.  

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