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. He 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.

Dr. 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 doctoral degree 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 has recently demonstrated that clonal hematopoiesis is virtually absent in adults under 40, but found in >10% of adults over 70 and confers a 10-fold increased risk of blood cancers, 2-fold increased risk of heart attack and 1.5-fold increased risk of death. Dr. Bick is focused on identifying the causes and consequences of clonal hematopoiesis with a goal of developing new treatments targeting clonal hematopoiesis.