Hebrew University professor has autism and Alzheimer’s hope

Haitham Amal wasn’t always propelled toward science. He wanted to study international relations. Then he took physics and chemistry in high school, and “fell in love with science,” he told JNS.

Amal, 39, a Christian Israeli, grew up in Haifa with three siblings in an educated family, with one uncle a doctor and his sister a pharmacist, he said.

In the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s School of Pharmacy, he heads the Amal Lab of Neuromics, Cell Signaling and Translational Medicine, focusing his research on autism, Alzheimer’s disease, and brain cancers.

Appreciating the amalgam of subjects he liked most in his early years, Amal calls himself “an international scientist.”

He spoke of all this to an audience of 100 on June 4 at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, where he was awarded a research chair in brain science from HU, funded by the Satell Family Foundation.

Amal relationship to Ed Satell goes back many years. Satell, who is approaching 90, a quiet but extensive philanthropist for more than 50 years, hosted the event with his wife, Cyma.

Amal spoke of encouraging advances made in autism and Alzheimer’s research. He has shown a link between nitric oxide, which is produced in human cells, and ASD; the results were widely circulated after being published in Advanced Science in May 2023.

“Important to note is that we still don’t know if [nitric oxide] leads to ASD as a first source,” said Amal in his findings. “We now know that [nitric oxide] is a major pathological factor in ASD. We also know that reducing [nitric oxide] levels reduce ASD phenotypes.”

As part of a new study, Amal’s team conducted a series of experiments using cellular and mouse models of ASD, as well as biological samples from patients, to further characterize the potential role of nitric oxide in the development of autism, according to the published paper.

The key takeaways, Amal said last week at the event, are a blood test to diagnose biomarkers of autism (clinical testing is currently the only method used) and the development of a drug — a syrup to be taken orally — that works to shut down an enzyme that produces nitric acid and thus reduces core symptoms.

He also pointed out environmental factors linked to autism, such as air pollution, chemical exposures and food toxins. To that end, Amal is part of a US consortium grant awarded $17 million to investigate reasons for reported increases in autism, while focusing on how pollutants may be a key factor in both autism and Alzheimer’s.

Others who addressed the crowd included businessman Joseph Neubauer, former CEO of Aramark Corp., who noted positive changes in the increasing diversity of faculty at Israeli universities; and Joshua Rednik, CEO of American Friends of the Hebrew University, who mentioned that Amal is the first international recipient of a grant from the Philadelphia Eagles Autism Foundation.

At the end of the program, a question-and-answer period focused on what everyone wants to know: What hope lies on the horizon in terms of cures?

“Hope is in the research … and the funding,” Amal replied. And then he made it a point to add, in the backdrop of a significant revolution two-and-a-half centuries ago, “there are great minds in Israel and America that will lead to a medical revolution.”