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
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.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.
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.
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.
Schmitt JE, Alexander-Bloch A, Seidlitz J, Raznahan A, Neale MC.: The genetics of spatiotemporal variation in cortical thickness in youth. Commun Biol 7(1): 1301, Oct 2024 Notes: doi: 10.1038/s42003-024-06956-2.
García-San-Martín N, Bethlehem RAI, Mihalik A, Seidlitz J, Sebenius I, Alemán-Morillo C, Dorfschmidt L, Shafiei G, Ortiz-García de la Foz V, Merritt K, David A, Morgan SE, Ruiz-Veguilla M, Ayesa-Arriola R, Vázquez-Bourgon J, Alexander-Bloch A, Misic B, Bullmore ET, Suckling J, Crespo-Facorro B; Lifespan Brain Chart Consortium; Romero-García R.: Molecular and micro-architectural mapping of gray matter alterations in psychosis. Mol Psychiatry Sep 2024 Notes: doi: 10.1038/s41380-024-02724-0. Epub ahead of print.
Bedford SA, Lai MC, Lombardo MV, Chakrabarti B, Ruigrok A, Suckling J, Anagnostou E, Lerch JP, Taylor M, Nicolson R, Stelios G, Crosbie J, Schachar R, Kelley E, Jones J, Arnold PD, Courchesne E, Pierce K, Eyler LT, Campbell K, Barnes CC, Seidlitz J, Alexander-Bloch AF, Bullmore ET, Baron-Cohen S, Bethlehem RAI; MRC AIMS Consortium; Lifespan Brain Chart Consortium.: Brain-Charting Autism and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Reveals Distinct and Overlapping Neurobiology. Biol Psychiatry S0006-3223(24): 01513-0, Aug 2024 Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2024.07.024. Epub ahead of print.
Ho NCW, Bethlehem RA, Seidlitz J, Nogovitsyn N, Metzak P, Ballester PL, Hassel S, Rotzinger S, Poppenk J, Lam RW, Taylor VH, Milev R; Lifespan Brain Chart Consortium; Bullmore ET, Alexander-Bloch AF, Frey BN, Harkness KL, Addington J, Kennedy SH, Dunlop K.: Atypical brain aging and its association with working memory performance in major depressive disorder. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging 9(8): 786-799, August 2024 Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2024.04.008. Epub 2024 Apr 26.
Dorfschmidt L, Váša F, White SR, Romero-García R, Kitzbichler MG, Alexander-Bloch A, Cieslak M, Mehta K, Satterthwaite TD; NSPN Consortium; Bethlehem RAI, Seidlitz J, Vértes PE, Bullmore ET.: Human adolescent brain similarity development is different for paralimbic versus neocortical zones. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 121(33): e2314074121, Aug 2024 Notes: doi: 10.1073/pnas.2314074121. Epub 2024 Aug 9.
Weinstein SM, Vandekar SN, Li B, Alexander-Bloch AF, Raznahan A, Li M, Gur RE, Gur RC, Roalf DR, Park MTM, Chakravarty M, Baller EB, Linn KA, Satterthwaite TD, Shinohara RT.: Network enrichment significance testing in brain-phenotype association studies. Hum Brain Mapp 45(8): e26714, Jun 2024 Notes: doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26714.