Dr. Alexander Bick Selected as the 2025 Moreton Research Award Recipient

The Southern Medical Association is pleased to announce that Alexander Bick, PhD, MD, has been selected as the 2025 recipient of the Dr. Robert D. and Alma W. Moreton Research Award to be presented at this year’s Annual Scientific Assembly in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Dr. Bick, Associate Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, is a physician-scientist specializing in human genomics. His work has deepened understanding of the genetic basis of cardiovascular disease, clarified molecular disease mechanisms, and highlighted both the opportunities and challenges of applying genomic discoveries to clinical care. He is particularly interested in how inherited genetic factors interact with acquired somatic mutations to drive disease. His research is highly collaborative and multidisciplinary, integrating human genomics and statistical genetics with laboratory and clinical studies.

Currently, Dr. Bick’s research centers on clonal hematopoiesis—a hallmark of aging linked to both cardiovascular disease and cancer. His studies show that while clonal hematopoiesis is rare in adults under 40, it is present in more than 10% of adults over 70, increasing the risk of blood cancers tenfold, heart attacks twofold, and overall mortality by 50%. His goal is to uncover the causes and consequences of clonal hematopoiesis and develop new therapies to target it.

In addition to research, Dr. Bick trained in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, with a focus on genomic medicine. At Vanderbilt’s Genomics and Therapeutics Clinic, he looks forward to applying insights from his research directly to patient care.

Dr. Bick will present the Moreton Lecture on Friday, November 14, 2025 during SMA’s Annual Scientific Assembly. His lecture, is titled “Clonal Hematopoiesis: how a pre-cancerous blood cell accelerates aging and what we can do about it”.