Dr Alex Tsompanidis

Research Associate

Alex is a postdoctoral research associate studying the roles of the prenatal environment and steroid hormones in autism. He is also an honorary research associate at Peterhouse and has been named in the world’s ‘top 40 under 40’ autism researchers by ‘Spectrum’ magazine. He has received a ‘best dissertation award’ by INSAR for his PhD, which he completed at the Autism Research Centre, co-supervised by Simon Baron-Cohen and Rosie Holt. He is particularly interested in the placenta-brain axis, evolutionary accounts of development and translational medicine.

Prior to his PhD, Alex studied clinical medicine at the University of Athens, where he also conducted research in pharmacogenomics in collaboration with Harvard University. He has also completed an MSc in human genetics at Imperial College London and has worked as a junior doctor in Neurology at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford.

Selected Publications

• Medical symptoms and conditions in autistic women, Autism (2021), T Simantov, A Pohl, A Tsompanidis, E Weir, M V Lombardo, A Ruigrok, P Smith, C Allison, S Baron-Cohen, F Uzefovsky
• Maternal steroid levels and the autistic traits of the mother and infant, Molecular Autism (2021), A Tsompanidis, E Aydin, E Padaigaite, G Richards, C Allison, G Hackett, T Austin, R Holt, S Baron-Cohen
• Fetal oestrogens and autism, Molecular Psychiatry (2019), S Baron-Cohen, A Tsompanidis, B Auyeung, B Nřrgaard-Pedersen, D M Hougaard, M Abdallah, A Cohen, A Pohl
• Fetal Anogenital Distance Using Ultrasound, Prenatal Diagnosis 39, 27-535 (2019), E Aydin, R Holt, D Chaplin, R Hawkes, C Allison, G Hackett, T Austin, A Tsompanidis, L Gabis, S I Ziv, S Baron-Cohen
• “Fetal brain growth and infant autistic traits” in ‘Molecular Autism’, January 2024 Aydin E., Tsompanidis A., Chaplin D., Hawkes R, Allison C., Hackett G., Austin T., Padaigaitė E., Gabis L., Suckling J., Baron-Cohen S., Holt R. “Sex differences in placental markers and later autistic traits”, Translational Psychiatry, July 2023. Tsompanidis. A.., Blanken. L, Broere-Brown Z., Van Rihn B., Baron-Cohen S., Tiemeier H.
• “The genetics of autism and steroid-related traits in prenatal and postnatal life” in ‘Frontiers of Endocrinology’, May 2023, Tsompanidis A., Warrier V. and Baron-Cohen S.
• “The link between autism and sex-specific neuroanatomy, and associated cognition and gene expression”, In ‘American Journal of Psychiatry’, July 2022: Floris D., Peng H., Warrier V., Lombardo M. , Pretsch CM, Moreau C., Tsompanidis. A., Baron-Cohen S., Beckmann CF “Maternal steroid levels and the autistic traits of the mother and infant” in ‘Mol Autism’ , July 2021: Tsompanidis A., Aydin E., Padaigaitė E., Richards G.,Allison C., Hackett G., Austin T., Baron-Cohen S., Holt R.
• “Medical symptoms in autistic women” in ‘Autism’, July 2021, Simantov T, Pohl A.(joint first authors), Tsompanidis A., Weir E., Lombardo M.,Ruigrok A.,Baron-Cohen S.,Uzefovsky F.
• “Ciliary neurotrophic factor upregulates follistatin and Pak1, causes overexpression of muscle differentiation genes and downregulation of atrophy mediators in skeletal muscle In Metabolism, June 2016, Tsompanidis A., Vafiadaki E., Blüher S., Sanoudou D, Mantzoros C.