Aaron F. Alexander-Bloch

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Aaron Alexander-Bloch, MD, PhD

Director, Brain-Gene-Development Laboratory

Dr. Alexander-Bloch investigates normal brain development and the altered developmental trajectories that lead to mental illness. His multi-disciplinary research integrates brain imaging, genomics and clinical information.

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Bio

After studying philosophy as an undergraduate at Harvard, Dr. Alexander-Bloch completed a Master’s in computational biology at the University of Cambridge. His PhD, jointly at Cambridge and the intramural program of the National Institute of Mental Health, explored MRI brain networks in typical development and schizophrenia. After UCLA medical school and residency in the Yale Department of Psychiatry, Dr. Alexander-Bloch served briefly as an assistant professor at Yale before moving to the CHOP-Penn system in 2019 to start the Brain-Gene-Development Lab.

Dr. Alexander-Bloch takes a multi-disciplinary approach to probe neurodevelopment and its disruption in mental illness. He develops computational methods to integrate brain imaging, genomics and clinical data. He is at work on projects in partnership with researchers at Penn and CHOP, as well as national and international collaborators. Current projects include:

Investigating the underlying cellular, genetic and transcriptomic basis of brain imaging measures such as cortical thickness, folding and multimodal connectivity between brain regions
Using network models to investigate normal brain development and altered developmental trajectories that lead to mental illness
Integrating the study of rare genetic syndromes with more common genetic and environmental risk factors to predict the onset of psychosis spectrum disorders

Dr. Alexander-Bloch works at the Richards Biomedical Research Building.