Ali is Professor of Chemical Biology at the University of Southampton in the UK and founder and CSO of Curve Therapeutics. Ali served as president of the Royal Society of Chemistry's (RSC) chemical Biology Interface Division (2020-2023), and is a Fellow of the RSC. Ali is also on the editorial board of RSC Chemical Biology. Ali has won a number of awards during his career, including the European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences' medal for European Young Chemist (in 2008), the RSC’s Protein and Peptide Science Award (in 2017), and the Leonidas Zervas Award from the European Peptide Society (in 2020).