Seldin-Smith Physician-Scientist Lecturer

Alexander G. Bick, M.D., Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Medicine
Division of Genetic Medicine
Vanderbilt University

Alexander Bick, M.D., Ph.D., will deliver the Seldin-Smith Physician-Scientist Lecture at the Seldin Symposium. His topic: "Clonal Hematopoiesis: How a Blood Pre-Cancer Accelerates Aging and What We Can Do About It."

Dr. Bick is a physician-scientist working in the field of human genomics, whose scientific observations have advanced our understanding of the genetic basis for cardiovascular disease, characterized molecular disease mechanisms, and identified both the promise and limitations of translating genomic findings into routine medical practice.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering sciences from Harvard University, where he also received a master’s degree in engineering and applied science, a doctorate in genetics, and a medical degree. 

He has a particular interest in understanding how the interplay between inherited germline genetic factors and acquired somatic mutations contributes to disease. His approach has been highly collaborative and multidisciplinary – combining human genomics and statistical genetics with in-vitro and in-vivo characterization of model systems and human samples.

Dr Bick’s current scientific focus is on clonal hematopoiesis, a unifying feature of aging diseases as diverse as cardiovascular disease and cancer. He recently showed that adults under 40 almost never have clonal hematopoiesis, but more than 10% of adults over 70 do. People with this condition have a ten‑times higher risk of blood cancers, twice the risk of a heart attack, and a 50% higher risk of dying early.

Dr. Bick is focused on identifying the causes and consequences of clonal hematopoiesis with a goal of developing new treatments targeting clonal hematopoiesis.