About

Aaron Felix Alexander-Bloch is the Principal Investigator and director of the Brain-Gene Development Lab at the University of Pennsylvania. His work focuses on understanding variability among people in human brain development and characterizing altered neurogenomic pathways that lead to mental illness. Prior to starting the lab, he trained in philosophy, computational biology, brain MRI, genetics, and clinical psychiatry. His research aims to elucidate the biological and neurogenomic mechanisms underlying brain development and mental health conditions, leveraging multimodal neuroimaging and genetic data to better understand neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Medicine
• Radiology
• Psychiatry
• Cognitive science
• Neuroscience
• Engineering
• Management
• Medical education

Selected publications

• Empowering Data Sharing in Neuroscience: A Deep Learning Deidentification Method for Pediatric Brain MRIs

  American Journal of Neuroradiology · 2024 · 4 citations

  • Medicine
  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive science

  BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Privacy concerns, such as identifiable facial features within brain scans, have hindered the availability of pediatric neuroimaging data sets for research. Consequently, pediatric neuroscience research lags adult counterparts, particularly in rare disease and under-represented populations. The removal of face regions (image defacing) can mitigate this; however, existing defacing tools often fail with pediatric cases and diverse image types, leaving a critical gap in data accessibility. Given recent National Institutes of Health data sharing mandates, novel solutions are a critical need. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To develop an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tool for automatic defacing of pediatric brain MRIs, deep learning methodologies (nnU-Net) were used by using a large, diverse multi-institutional data set of clinical radiology images. This included multiparametric MRIs (T1-weighted [T1W], T1W-contrast-enhanced, T2-weighted [T2W], T2W-FLAIR) with 976 total images from 208 patients with brain tumor (Children's Brain Tumor Network, CBTN) and 36 clinical control patients (Scans with Limited Imaging Pathology, SLIP) ranging in age from 7 days to 21 years old. RESULTS: < .0001). CONCLUSIONS: The defacing model demonstrates efficacy in removing facial regions across multiple MRI types and exhibits minimal impact on downstream research usage. A software package with the trained model is freely provided for wider use and further development (pediatric-auto-defacer; https://github.com/d3b-center/pediatric-auto-defacer-public). By offering a solution tailored to pediatric cases and multiple MRI sequences, this defacing tool will expedite research efforts and promote broader adoption of data sharing practices within the neuroscience community.

  DOI

• Core Competencies of an Anti-racist Physician: Elective Course for Undergraduate Medical Students

  MedEdPORTAL · 2024 · 3 citations

  • Medical education
  • Psychology
  • Medicine

  Introduction: Medical schools seeking to correct and reform curricula towards anti-racist perspectives need to address anti-Black forms of racism specifically and teach students critical upstander skills to interrupt manifestations of racism. We developed a course to teach preclinical medical students basic anti-racism competencies including recognition and awareness of anti-Black racism in medicine and upstander skills to advocate for patients and colleagues. Methods: = 149) to introduce competencies of anti-racism focusing on upstander skills for addressing anti-Blackness. We designed three patient cases and one student-centered case to illustrate manifestations of anti-Black racism in medicine and used these cases to stimulate small-group discussions and guide students toward recognizing and understanding ways of responding to racism. We designed pre- and postassessments to evaluate the effectiveness of the course and utilized anonymous feedback surveys. Results: Participants showed significant improvement in pre- to postassessment scores in both years of the course. The anonymous feedback survey showed that 97% of students rated the course at least somewhat effective, and the qualitative responses revealed five core themes: course timing, case complexity, learner differentiation, direct instruction, and access to resources. Discussion: This course reinforces upstander competencies necessary for advancing anti-racism in medicine. It addresses a gap in medical education by reckoning with the entrenched nature of anti-Black racism in the culture of medicine and seeks to empower undergraduate medical students to advocate for Black-identifying patients and colleagues.

  PublisherDOI

• Intrinsic activity development unfolds along a sensorimotor–association cortical axis in youth

  Nature Neuroscience · 2023 · 185 citations

  • Neuroscience
  • Psychology
  • Biology
  DOI

• Brain charts for the human lifespan

  Nature · 2022 · 1720 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Biology
  • Neuroscience

  , showed high stability of individuals across longitudinal assessments, and demonstrated robustness to technical and methodological differences between primary studies. Centile scores showed increased heritability compared with non-centiled MRI phenotypes, and provided a standardized measure of atypical brain structure that revealed patterns of neuroanatomical variation across neurological and psychiatric disorders. In summary, brain charts are an essential step towards robust quantification of individual variation benchmarked to normative trajectories in multiple, commonly used neuroimaging phenotypes.

  DOI

• Neurodevelopment of the association cortices: Patterns, mechanisms, and implications for psychopathology

  Neuron · 2021 · 733 citations

  • Neuroscience
  • Psychology
  • Biology
  DOI

Frequent coauthors

• Jakob Seidlitz

  16 shared

• Anna Zapaishchykova

  Brigham and Women's Hospital

  15 shared

• Benjamin H. Kann

  15 shared

• Benedicto Crespo‐Facorro

  Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental

  6 shared

• Arastoo Vossough

  Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

  6 shared

• Ali Nabavizadeh

  Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

  6 shared

• Anahita Fathi Kazerooni

  6 shared

• Lena Dorfschmidt

  University of Cambridge

  6 shared

Labs

• Brain-Gene Development LabPI

Awards & honors

• Aaron wins Distinguished Research Mentor Award (2026)

Similar researchers at University of Pennsylvania

• John Q. Trojanowskih-296
• Craig B. Thompsonh-277
• Daniel J Raderh-236
• Carl H. Juneh-218
• M. Celeste Simonh-185