Perth, Australia — Black Swan Biotech (BSB) is delighted to announce the appointment of Dr. Ahmad Al Khleifat MB BCh, MSc., PhD in the role of Clinical Advisor and Chair of Clinical Advisory Board.
This appointment builds on the strong collaboration that exists between BSB and the Neurology and Complex Disease Genetics group at King’s College London.
Dr Al Khleifat is the MND Association Lady Edith Wolfson and ALS Association’s Milton Safenowitz Senior Fellow. He trained in medicine in Egypt and completed his MSc and PhD in Clinical Neuroscience at King’s College London.
In his role at KCL Dr. Al Khleifat’s laboratory leverages large-scale data to advance precision medicine, optimise clinical trial design, and accelerate therapeutic discovery in neurodegenerative diseases. The group integrates complex disease genetics, artificial intelligence in clinical research, and proteomic biomarker development for neurodegeneration. He established the Drug Target Validation Programme within the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience.
In addition to his role at BSB Dr Al Khleifat chairs the Trans-Ancestral Genetics Working Group within Project MinE and leads the Drug Discovery and Trials Optimisation Working Group in the DEMON network. He is also a co-founder of the Alan Turing Institute Interest Group in Precision Dementia Medicine and the Alzheimer’s Association initiative on AI for Precision Dementia Medicine.
In welcoming Dr. Al Khleifat to the company Dr. Masha Stromme (CEO, BSB) stated that “Dr. Al Khleifat’s deep knowledge and clinical experience in the ALS field will strengthen the clinical team ahead of our pivotal first-in-human clinical trial for SOD1 patients and that we look forward to working with him closely on this milestone activity for BSB”.
Dr. Al Khleilfat: “I am excited to be joining BSB at this exciting stage of their development as a company. BSB’s ASO technology offers us a unique opportunity to develop targeted treatments for the ALS patient community, and I look forward to working on BSB’s clinical trial program”.
BSB is an Australian biotechnology company focused on developing precision antisense oligonucleotide therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, with an initial focus on Motor Neurone Disease (MND), including Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
The company is developing a pipeline of genetically targeted, RNA-directed medicines designed to address underlying molecular mechanisms implicated in neurodegenerative diseases. BSB was spun out of the Perron Institute and Murdoch University and is headquartered in Perth, Western Australia.
Julian Arbuckle (CBO)
Julian.arbuckle@blackswanbio.com
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