Haitham Amal (born October 14, 1985) is the Satell Family chair and professor of brain sciences and head of the laboratory of neuromics, cell signaling, and translational medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is recognized for his research on the role of nitric oxide in brain disorders, mainly Autism spectrum disorder (ASD).Gid'on Lev (May 24, 2023). Autism Breakthrough: Israeli Scientists Find Molecular Mechanism Involved With Disorder. Haaretz.
Education and career Amal was born and raised in Haifa.(August 3, 2022). Meet Our Faculty: Dr. Haitham Amal. Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He received a B.Sc. from the School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He completed a MSc from the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, Tel Aviv University, where he researched the effects of cannabis on cognition and memory. In 2015, he earned a Ph.D. from the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (2015). His doctoral thesis, titled “The unique chemical signature of cancer in exhaled breath”, was supervised by Hossam Haick.The unique chemical signature of cancer in exhaled breath / Haitham Amal; (supervision: Hossam Haick). The Technion Library. Amal was a Postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in the laboratory of Steven R. Tannenbaum from 2015 to 2019. His research involved proteomics, systems biology, biochemistry, pharmacology, and behavioral studies related to autism spectrum disorder and Alzheimer’s disease; during this period, he was an affiliate at the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University.Judy Siegel-Itzkovich (May 23, 2023). Autism research ‘breakthrough’ discovered in rodent models by Hebrew University researchers. The Jerusalem Post.
In 2019, Amal was appointed assistant professor at the Institute for Drug Research, School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and in 2023 was appointed tenured associate professor. Since 2024, he has served as a visiting professor at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Harvard University. He received research grants from the United States Department of Defense, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and the German Research Foundation, and is the first international recipient of the Eagles Autism Foundation Research Grant. He was also awarded the Krill Prize from the Wolf Foundation.(November 12, 2024). Haitham Amal: Nitric oxide is a shared molecular mechanism of multiple neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. Genomic Press. pp. 16–18. In 2025, He was named the Satell Family Chair for Brain Science. His laboratory is part of a research collective led by Stuart Lipton of the Scripps Research, which received a $17 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to study the link between environmental pollution and autism.(September 24, 2024). A professor from the Hebrew University has been awarded a prestigious research grant for the study of autism. Ynet.
Amal is the founding partner of NeuroNOS, a company focused on the synthesis of small molecule therapeutics for autism spectrum disorder and other neurological conditions. It obtained an orphan drug designation from the FDA for the treatment of 22q13 deletion syndrome.Jenna Flogeras (December 1, 2025). Haitham Amal: targeting autism spectrum disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, and glioblastoma with small-molecule drugs. Advanced Science News. Additionally, it received ophan drug designation for BA-101 for the treatment of Glioblastoma.Sabrina Serani and Jason M. Broderick (September 17, 2025). FDA Grants Orphan Drug Designation to Novel Glioblastoma Therapy. Targeted Oncology. He co-founded Point6 Bio, a company developing diagnostic models based on biomarkers for neurological disorders.Gali Weinreb (November 22, 2024). The researcher pioneering the discovery of the etiology of autism. Globes.
Family Haitham Amal is married to Rageda, an art therapist specializing in autism; they reside in Boston with their two children.Carin M. Smilk (June 9, 2025). ‘Hope is the research,’ says Hebrew U professor who studies autism, Alzheimer’s. Jewish News Syndicate.
Research Amal’s research focuses on the biochemical pathways underlying neurological diseases. His work identifies nitric oxide (NO) as a regulator of neuronal development and synaptic plasticity via S-nitrosylation, particularly in Autism spectrum disorder (ASD).D Tripathi M, Kartway M, and Amal H*. The role of nitric oxide in brain disorders: autism spectrum disorder and other psychiatric, neurological, and neurodegenerative disorders. Redox Biology, 2020: p.101567. Analysis using SNOTRAP mass spectrometry indicates that SHANK3 mutations disrupt S-nitrosylation in the cortex and striatum, affecting proteins associated with vesicle release and synaptic transmission.Haitham Amal et al., Shank3 mutation in a mouse model of autism leads to changes in the S-nitroso-proteome and affects key proteins involved in vesicle release and synaptic function, Molecular Psychiatry, 2020,25 (8), 1835-1848. Research on mitochondrial dysfunction in ASD has identified deficits in energy metabolism and the electron transport chain, alongside imbalances in calcium, oxidative stress, and apoptotic signaling that impact synaptic development.Khaliulin I, Hamoudi W, and Amal H. The multifaceted role of mitochondria in autism spectrum disorder. Molecular Psychiatry, 2024. A study on mice found that arsenic induces cognitive deficits similar to those observed in ASD and Alzheimer’s disease. Mass spectrometry showed S-nitrosylation in mitochondrial and cell-death proteins, suggesting a convergence of environmental and genetic factors on nitric oxide pathways.Tripathi M, Kartawy M., Ginzburg Sh., and Amal H*, Arsenic alters nitric oxide signaling similar to autism spectrum disorder and Alzheimer’s disease-associated mutations. Translational Psychiatry. 12, 127 (2022). Research indicates that NO contributes to ASD pathogenesis in Shank3 and CNTNAP2 models. The inhibition of neuronal NO synthase reversed molecular and behavioral phenotypes in mice and human iPSCs-derived neurons, suggesting NO as a potential therapeutic target.Tripathi M, Shashank O, Kartawy M, Hamoudi W, Aran A, Choudhary A, Stern Sh, Aran A, and Amal H*. The NO Answer for Autism Spectrum Disorder. Advanced Science, 2023. A comparative study identified similar synaptic and behavioral phenotypes in juvenile Shank3 and Cntnap2 mice across both sexes. These consistent molecular alterations suggest that neurodevelopmental disruptions resulting from these mutations manifest regardless of sex.Tripathi M, Shashank O, Kartawy M, Hamoudi W, Khaliulin I, and Amal H*. Mutations associated with autism lead to similar synaptic and behavioral alterations in both sexes of male and female mouse brain. Scientific Reports, 2024. An examination of environmental factors indicates that air pollution increases ASD risk by inducing neuroinflammation and oxidative stress. This effect appears most pronounced during prenatal development and early childhood among genetically susceptible individuals.Ojha Sh and Amal H*. Air pollution: an emerging risk factor for autism spectrum disorder. Brain Medicine, 2024.
Amal developed diagnostic tools. He utilized nanoarray breath analysis to detect gastric cancer and precancerous lesions,Haitham Amal et al., Detection of precancerous gastric lesions and gastric cancer through exhaled breath. Gut. 2016, 65 (3), 400-407. and participated in the development of an AI nanoarray using gold and carbon nanoparticles to diagnose 17 diseases via exhaled breath with 86% accuracy. By identifying 13 conditions, it serves as a noninvasive screening method.Morad K. Nakhleh†Haitham Amal et al., Diagnosis and Classification of 17 Diseases from 1404 Subjects via Pattern Analysis of Exhaled Molecules. ACS Nano. 11, 1 Article (2016). He examined an application of breath analysis to identify ovarian cancer via volatile markers, achieving 71% diagnostic accuracy in malignant cases.Haitham Amal et al., Assessment of ovarian cancer conditions from exhaled breath. International Journal of Cancer, 2015, 136 (6), E614-E622. In another study, Nanomaterial sensors analyzed VOCs fingerprints in HCC cell cultures, differentiating normal cells from those with varying metastatic potential. This suggests a non-invasive prognostic tool for subclinical metastasis.Haitham Amal et al., The scent fingerprint of hepatocarcinoma: in-vitro metastasis prediction with volatile organic compounds (VOCs), International Journal of Nanomedicine. 2012, 4135-4146.
References
External links The Amal Lab