Aaron Felix Alexander-Bloch
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.
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.
Post-Graduate Training
Postdoctoral fellowship in brain imaging-genomics, Yale University, 2015-2019.
Psychiatry Resident, Neuroscience Research Training Program, Yale University School of Medicine, 2015-2019.
Permanent linkPostdoctoral fellowship in brain imaging-genomics, Yale University, 2015-2019.
Psychiatry Resident, Neuroscience Research Training Program, Yale University School of Medicine, 2015-2019.
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
Luo AC, Meisler SL, Sydnor VJ, Alexander-Bloch A, Bagautdinova J, Barch DM, Bassett DS, Davatzikos C, Franco AR, Goldsmith J, Gur RE, Gur RC, Hu F, Jaskir M, Kiar G, Keller AS, Larsen B, Mackey AP, Milham MP, Roalf DR, Shafiei G, Shinohara RT, Somerville LH, Weinstein SM, Yeatman JD, Cieslak M, Rokem A, Satterthwaite TD.: Two axes of white matter development. Nat Commun Jan 2026.Mandal AS, Shinohara RT, Jung B, Gardner M, Akouri HE, Yerys BE, Low KJ, Cole TJ, Guthrie W, Janke KM, Herrington JD, Hocking MC, Ball G, Payne JM, North KN, Muhlert N, Garg S, Seidlitz J, Fisher MJ, Alexander-Bloch AF.: NF1-Specific Growth Charts for Head Circumference Over the First 3 Years of Life. Neurology 106: e214480, Jan 2026.
Hu F, Tong J, Gardner M; Lifespan Brain Chart Consortium; Chen AA, Bethlehem RAI, Seidlitz J, Li H, Alexander-Bloch A, Chen Y, Shinohara RT.: dGAMLSS: an exact, distributed algorithm to fit Generalized Additive Models for Location, Scale, and Shape for privacy-preserving population reference charts. Bioinformatics 42: btaf625, Jan 2026.
Bagautdinova J, Shafiei G, Luo AC, Pecsok MK, Salo T, Alexander-Bloch AF, Bassett DS, Gardner ME, Gur RE, Gur RC, Mackey AP, Misic B, Moore TM, Roalf DR, Shinohara RT, Sydnor VJ, Tong TT, Yeh FC, Poldrack RA, Cieslak M, Satterthwaite TD.: Anatomical White Matter Tracts Span the Cortical Hierarchy to Support Cognitive Diversity. bioRxiv Dec 2025.
Mandal AS, Dorfschmidt L, Schabdach JM, Gardner M, Yerys BE, Bethlehem RAI, Sotardi S, Henry MK, Wood JN, Chaiyachati BH, Alexander-Bloch A, Seidlitz J.: Normative Trajectories of Extra-Axial Cerebrospinal Fluid during Childhood and Adolescence Defined in a Clinically Acquired MRI Dataset. Radiol Artif Intell Dec 2025.
Rauland A, Meisler SL, Alexander-Bloch AF, Bagautdinova J, Baller EB, Gur RE, Gur RC, Luo AC, Moore TM, Popovych OV, Reetz K, Roalf DR, Shinohara RT, Sotardi S, Sydnor VJ, Vossough A, Eickhoff SB, Cieslak M, Satterthwaite TD.: White Matter Bundle Reconstruction From Single-Shell Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Test-Retest Reliability and Predictive Capability Across Orientation Distribution Function Reconstruction Methods. Hum Brain Mapp 46: e70429, Dec 2025.
Jones MT, Gadiyar I, Zhang X, Kang K, Liu J, Chen A, Seidlitz J, Alexander-Bloch A, Kennedy E, Vandekar S.: Improved Estimation of Correlation Accuracy for Machine Learning Brain-Phenotype Associations. bioRxiv Dec 2025.
Chen AA, Seidlitz J, Gardner M, Bethlehem RAI, Dorfschmidt L, Kafadar E; Lifespan Brain Chart Consortium; Benitez A, Jensen JH, Vandekar S, Satterthwaite TD, Alexander-Bloch AF.: Calibration of MRI-based reference intervals to new samples. bioRxiv Nov 2025.
Parker TD, Bethlehem RAI, Seidlitz J, White SR, David MCB, Kolanko MA, Bernstock JD, Dorfschmidt L, Bourke N, Gailly de Taurines A, Hain JA, Del Giovane M, Graham NSN, Zimmerman KA, Losty EJF, Schöll M, Srikrishna M, Malhotra PA, Patel MC, Scott G, Alexander-Bloch AF, Bullmore ET, Sharp DJ; Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative; Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration Neuroimaging Initiative; Lifespan Brain Chart Consortium.: Generalizable MRI normative modelling to detect age-inappropriate neurodegeneration. Alzheimers Res Ther 17: 244, Nov 2025.
Jung B, Schmitt JE, Seidlitz J, Schabdach J, Karandikar S, Crowley TB, Dorfschmidt L, Mandal AS, Zimmerman D, Williams RMS, Prem S, Levitis E, Gardner M, Cyr K, Padmanabhan V, Taylor JH, Ruparel K, Boen R, Bearden CE, Ching CRK, Pasaniuc B, Anderson S, McGinn D, Zackai E, Emanuel B, Hopkins S, Chadehumbe M, Low KJ, Cole TJ, Bethlehem RAI, Shinohara RT, Gaynor JW, Roalf DR, Gur RE, McDonald-McGinn DM, Alexander-Bloch A.: Leveraging Clinical Neuroimaging to Chart Brain Structure in 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome. medRxiv Nov 2025.