Faculty

Aaron Felix Alexander-Bloch, MD, PhD, MPhil

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry

Department: Psychiatry

Graduate Group Affiliations

Contact information

Richards Biomedical Research Laboratories, B504
3700 Hamilton Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Publications

Search PubMed for articles

Education:
AB (Philosophy)
Harvard College, 2006.
MPhil (Computational Biology)
University of Cambridge, 2008.
PhD (Neuroscience)
University of Cambridge, 2013.
MD (Medicine)
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, 2015.

Links
Search PubMed for articles
lab website
personal lab website

Permanent link

> Perelman School of Medicine > Faculty > Details

Description of Clinical Expertise

Psychosis

Description of Research Expertise

Dr Alexander-Bloch investigates normal brain development and the altered developmental trajectories that lead to mental illness. As the Director of the Brain-Gene Development Lab, he leads a multi-disciplinary team that uses advanced computational approaches to analyze large-scale imaging, clinical, and genomics data. Their goal is to translate the highly polygenic risk for psychosis and other neurodevelopmental psychiatric disorders into pathophysiologic mechanisms, to inform therapeutic targets and improve risk assessment. Dr. Alexander-Bloch has a history of pioneering approaches that have become widely used by the broader field. His areas of expertise lie at the intersection of advanced multimodal MRI methods, neurotypical brain maturation, and rare and common genetic variants that confer psychiatric risk.

Selected Publications

Sun KY, Schmitt JE, Moore TM, Barzilay R, Almasy L, Schultz LM, Mackey AP, Kafadar E, Sha Z, Seidlitz J, Mallard TT, Cui Z, Li H, Fan Y, Fair DA, Satterthwaite TD, Keller AS, Alexander-Bloch A.: Polygenic Risk Underlies Youth Psychopathology and Personalized Functional Brain Network Topography. JAMA Psychiatry 82(9): 905-915, September 2025 Notes: doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2025.1258.

Fan XR, He Y, Wang YS, Li L; Lifespan Brain Chart Consortium (LBCC); China Autism Brain Imaging Consortium (CABIC); Duan X, Zuo XN.: Profiling brain morphology for autism spectrum disorder with two cross-culture large-scale consortia. Commun Biol 8: 1157, Aug 2025.

Sha Z, Warrier V, Bethlehem RAI, Schultz LM, Merikangas A, Sun KY, Gur RC, Gur RE, Shinohara RT, Seidlitz J, Almasy L, Andreassen OA, Alexander-Bloch AF*.: The overlapping genetic architecture of psychiatric disorders and cortical brain structure. Nature Mental Health Aug 2025 Notes: doi: 10.1038/s44220-025-00475-7, *senior author.

Sha Z, Sun KY, Jung B, Barzilay R, Moore TM, Almasy L, Forsyth JK, Prem S, Gandal MJ, Seidlitz J, Glessner JT, Alexander-Bloch AF.: Copy Number Variant Architecture of Child Psychopathology and Cognitive Development in the ABCD Study. Am J Psychiatry 182: 763-778, Aug 2025.

Sydnor VJ, Bagautdinova J, Larsen B, Arcaro MJ, Barch DM, Bassett DS, Alexander-Bloch AF, Cook PA, Covitz S, Franco AR, Gur RE, Gur RC, Mackey AP, Mehta K, Meisler SL, Milham MP, Moore TM, Müller EJ, Roalf DR, Salo T, Schubiner G, Seidlitz J, Shinohara RT, Shine JM, Yeh FC, Cieslak M, Satterthwaite TD.: Human thalamocortical structural connectivity develops in line with a hierarchical axis of cortical plasticity. Nat Neurosci 28(8): 1772-1786, August 2025 Notes: doi: 10.1038/s41593-025-01991-6. Epub 2025 Jul 4.

Dorfschmidt L, White S, Gardner M, Bedford S, Ball G, Edwards AD, Gu Y, He Y, Huang H, Karandikar S, Kyriakopoulou V, Ouyuang M, Pulli EP, Raznahan A, Robinson EC, Romero-García R, Satterthwaite TD, Schabdach J, Sebenius I, Sha Z, Shinohara RT, Tuulari J, Vaghi MM, Vogel J, Váša F, Williams L, Zimmerman D; Lifespan Brain Chart Consortium; Warrier V, Wagstyl K, Bullmore ET, Bethlehem RAI, Seidlitz J, Alexander-Bloch A.: Charting structural brain asymmetry across the human lifespan. bioRxiv Jul 2025.

Mandal AS, Shinohara RT, Jung B, Gardner M, Akouri HE, Yerys BE, Guthrie W, Janke KM, Herrington JD, Hocking MC, Ball G, Payne JM, North KN, Muhlert N, Garg S, Seidlitz J, Fisher MJ, Alexander-Bloch A.: NF1-specific growth charts for head circumference over the first three years of life. medRxiv Jun 2025.

Schabdach JM, Williams RMS, Logan J, Padmanabhan V, D'Aiello Iii R, Mclaughlin J, Gonzalez A, Krause EM, Tasian GE, Sotardi S, Alexander-Bloch A*.: From Scanner to Science: Reusing Clinically Acquired Medical Images for Research. AMIA Jt Summits Transl Sci Proc 2025: 471-480, Jun 2025 Notes: *senior author.

Keller AS, Sun KY, Francisco A, Robinson H, Beydler E, Bassett DS, Cieslak M, Cui Z, Davatzikos C, Fan Y, Gardner M, Kishton R, Kornfield SL, Larsen B, Li H, Linder I, Pines A, Pritschet L, Raznahan A, Roalf DR, Seidlitz J, Shafiei G, Shinohara RT, White LK, Wolf DH, Alexander-Bloch A, Satterthwaite TD, Shanmugan S.: Reproducible sex differences in personalised functional network topography in youth. Br J Psychiatry 226(6): 383-391, June 2025 Notes: doi: 10.1192/bjp.2025.135. Epub 2025 Jun 19.

Sun KY, Schmitt JE, Moore TM, Barzilay R, Almasy L, Schultz LM, Mackey AP, Kafadar E, Sha Z, Seidlitz J, Mallard TT, Cui Z, Li H, Fan Y, Fair DA, Satterthwaite TD, Keller AS, Alexander-Bloch A*: Polygenic Risk, Psychopathology, and Personalized Functional Brain Network Topography in Adolescence. JAMA Psychiatry Jun 2025 Notes: *senior author.