Ali’s primary research focuses on cartilage biology. He is the Scientific Co-ordinator of the EU Framework 7 funded D-BOARD consortium, which brings together leading European academic institutions and SMEs to focus on the identification, validation and qualification of new biomarkers for degenerative and inflammatory diseases of joints. He is also a member of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) APPROACH project (Applied Public-Private Research enabling OsteoArthritis Clinical Headway) consortium. This project is directed towards osteoarthritis biomarker development through the establishment of a well phenotyped and comprehensively analysed longitudinal cohort.