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Brain-Gene-Development Lab
We are hiring!
The Brain-Gene-Development Lab has positions available for a research assistant, data analyst and post-doctoral fellow, as well as additional opportunities for undergraduate and PhD students. Please contact Dr. Alexander-Bloch at alexanderba@email.chop.edu.
With strong collaborative ties to other groups both locally and globally, the Brain-Gene-Development Laboratory integrates Big Data from publicly available imaging and genomics resources with deep phenotyping of individuals within the University of Pennsylvania and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia system. The lab team's goal is to translate the highly polygenic risk for psychosis and other neurovelopmental psychiatric disorders into pathophysiologic mechanisms, to inform therapeutic targets and improve risk assessment.
Project Highlights
- Transcriptomics informs neuroimaging phenotypes in the UK Biobank
- Quantitative analysis tests disruption in clinically-acquired brain MRI in genetic syndromes
- Influence of copy number variants and polygenic risk on brain development and psychiatric risk
- Statistical framework for comparing maps of human brain structure and function
Leader
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.