September 2017-Present Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Lille University School of Medicine, France
November. 2015-Present Researcher in Neuroscience, University of Lille, CNRS, UMR9193-PsychiC-SCALab, Lille, France
November. 2014-Present Visiting researcher, King’s College London, Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, London, UK
September 2017-Present Scientific Director, Regional Federation of Research in Psychiatry, Hauts-de-France, (www.f2rsmpsy.fr)
2016-Present Collaborator of the University of Liege, Belgium
Ali is developing a comprehensive approach of psychiatry based on clinical neurosciences and using the tools of cutting-edge research in everyday clinical practice.
Ali specialises in the management of treatment-resistant and complex psychiatric disorders with a focus on catatonia and severe mood and psychotic disorders.
He also works with patients with complex neuropsychiatric disorders. He mainly uses a pharmacological approach and physical treatments (especially electroconvulsive therapy, but also other neuromodulation techniques and bright light therapy).
Ali’s research is organised around 3 main topics. First, he has a particular interest in studying the interaction between environmental factors and the brain in psychiatric disorders (e.g. gene x environment interaction, pharmacogenetics, pharmaco-brain imaging). He also developed the concept of plastic adaptation to the pathology in neuropsychiatric disorders. This concept highlights that substantial plasticity and remodelling may occur beyond the classic neuroprogressive framework. Finally, he develop an approach about the definition of an objective psychiatry using, for example, digital phenotyping tools.
Over the past 4 years Ali has made a significant contribution to the drumming and brain research undertaken by the Clem Burke Drumming Project.