After initially training in medicine and surgery in Cambridge, Dr Ali joined the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Oxford as a Wellcome Trust Clinical Training Fellow under the supervision of Professor Keith Channon. Dr Ali trained in cardiovascular surgery prior to embarking on a career as a clinician scientist in cardiovascular medicine. He has recently joined the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Stanford University. Dr Ali’s research focuses on the exaggerated biological response to cardiovascular interventions such as venous bypass surgery and percutaneous coronary intervention. His investigative approach utilizes murine models of venous bypass surgery and his own recently developed murine model of balloon angioplasty and stenting. Using these models Dr Ali has been investigating the role of the endothelium in the response to vascular injury and in particular the critical role of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and its essential cofactor tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4). In recent work Dr Ali and colleagues have found that increased synthesis of BH4 in the endothelium is able to protect against vein graft accelerated atherosclerosis. They have found that increasing endothelial BH4 improves eNOS function and accelerates re-endothelialization through both increased bone marrow derived endothelial progenitor cells and enhanced endothelial proliferation.