Aaron Felix Alexander-Bloch, MD, PhD, MPhil
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
Attending Psychiatrist, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Attending Psychiatrist, Penn Psychosis Evaluation and Recovery Center Clinic
Department: Psychiatry
Graduate Group Affiliations
Contact information
Richards Biomedical Research Laboratories, B504
3700 Hamilton Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104
3700 Hamilton Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Publications
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.
Permanent linkAB (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.
Description of Clinical Expertise
PsychosisDescription 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
Daniali, M., Karandikar, S., Zimmerman, D.J. Schmitt, E., Buczek, M.J., Jung, B., Mercedes, L., Seidlitz, J.,Troiani, V., Dorfschmidt, L., Kafadar, E., Williams, R., Sotardi, S., Vosough, A., Haag, S., Schabdach, J.M., Alexander-Bloch, A.*: Language Models for Automated Classification of Brain MRI Reports and Growth Chart Generation. arXiv 2503.12143, March 2025 Notes: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2503.12143, * senior author.Sebenius I, Dorfschmidt L, Seidlitz J, Alexander-Bloch A, Morgan SE, Bullmore E.: Structural MRI of brain similarity networks. Nat Rev Neurosci 26(1): 42-59, January 2025 Notes: doi: 10.1038/s41583-024-00882-2. Epub 2024 Nov 28.
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.: A sensorimotor-association axis of thalamocortical connection development. Nature Neuroscience accepted 2025 Notes: doi: 10.1101/2024.06.13.598749.
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.*: The copy number variant architecture of psychopathology and cognitive development in the ABCD(®) study. American Journal of Psychiatry accepted 2025 Notes: doi: 10.1101/2024.05.14.24307376, *senior author.
Gardner M, Shinohara RT, Bethlehem RAI, Romero-Garcia R, Warrier V, Dorfschmidt L; Lifespan Brain Chart Consortium; Shanmugan S, Thompson P, Seidlitz J, Alexander-Bloch AF*, Chen AA.: ComBatLS: A location- and scale-preserving method for multi-site image harmonization. Human Brain Mapping accepted 2025 Notes: doi: 10.1101/2024.06.21.599875, *co-senior author.
Kang K, Seidlitz J, Bethlehem RAI, Xiong J, Jones MT, Mehta K, Keller AS, Tao R, Randolph A, Larsen B, Tervo-Clemmens B, Feczko E, Dominguez OM, Nelson SM; Lifespan Brain Chart Consortium; Schildcrout J, Fair DA, Satterthwaite TD, Alexander-Bloch A*, Vandekar S.: Study design features increase replicability in brain-wide association studies. Nature 636(8043): 719-727, December 2024 Notes: doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08260-9. Epub 2024 Nov 27., *co-senior author.
Familiar AM, Khalili N, Khalili N, Schuman C, Grove E, Viswanathan K, Seidlitz J, Alexander-Bloch A, Zapaishchykova A, Kann BH, Vossough A, Storm PB, Resnick AC, Kazerooni AF, Nabavizadeh A.: Empowering Data Sharing in Neuroscience: A Deep Learning De-identification Method for Pediatric Brain MRIs. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol Page: ajnr.A8581, Nov 2024 Notes: doi: 10.3174/ajnr.A8581. Epub ahead of print.
Zimmerman, D., Schabdach, J., Haag, S. Moore, T., Chaiyachati, B., Alexander-Bloch, A.*: Exploring the Relationship Between Environmental Exposure to Lead and Neurodevelopment. Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists, Pittsburgh, PA November 2024 Notes: *senior author.
Sha, Z., Warrier, V., Bethlehem, R.A.I., Schultz, L.M., Merikangas, A., Sun, K.Y., Gur, R.C., Gur, R.E., Shinohara, R.T. Gandal, M.J., Seidlitz, J., Almasy, L., Andreassen, O.A., Alexander-Bloch, A.F.: New insights into the overlapping genetic architecture of neuropsychiatric disorders and morphology of the human cerebral cortex. American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado November 2024 Notes: *senior author.
Ball G, Oldham S, Kyriakopoulou V, Williams LZJ, Karolis V, Price A, Hutter J, Seal ML, Alexander-Bloch A, Hajnal JV, Edwards AD, Robinson EC, Seidlitz J.: Molecular signatures of cortical expansion in the human foetal brain. Nat Commun 15(1): 9685, Nov 2024 Notes: doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-54034-2.