Nicolas Bloch, MD, Joins Columbia Radiology

We are very pleased to announce that Nicolas Bloch, MD, has joined the Department of Radiology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center as professor of radiology.  

Bloch is internationally recognized for his innovations and advancements in the fields of breast and prostate imaging, including the development of a novel multimodal breast biopsy marker which was patented in 2015 and received FDA clearance for clinical use in 2024. He received a Wallace H. Coulter Translational Research Partnership Award for his work on this device. 

Bloch is also a pioneer of multiparametric prostate MRI, having developed a computer aided design (CAD) analysis software for prostate dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) MRI, now used in clinical care. He was also among the first investigators to report the clinical utility of endorectal 3T MRI scanners, which markedly improve the sensitivity of the test. His early work led to the development of the first prostate MRI program in Austria, which quickly gained an international reputation, and he later helped build and lead the Prostate MRI Programs at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and Boston University Medical Center.  

“Dr. Bloch is a highly accomplished academic radiologist and has made major contributions to translating state-of-the-art imaging techniques to the care of his patients, with a dual focus on breast and prostate imaging," said Ajay Gupta, MD, professor of radiology and chair of the Department of Radiology at Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. "Dr. Bloch is poised to make a significant impact on clinical care, research, and education at Columbia and we are delighted to welcome him to the team.” 

Bloch’s contributions to diagnostic radiology have been supported by grant funding from  industry, foundation, and the National Institutes of Health. Currently, he is principal investigator on several clinical trials and conducts several additional MRI studies in collaboration with other institutions in the field of AI enabled image-biomarker and classifier development in breast, prostate, and colon cancer.  

A passionate educator, Bloch will serve as program director of the Breast Imaging Fellowship at Columbia in addition to his ongoing mentorship of medical students, residents, and PhD candidates.  

Born in Vienna, Austria, Bloch received his medical degree from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Vienna. He completed his internship at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and a radiology residency at Vienna General Hospital. He was then recruited to Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he completed fellowships in MRI Research and Breast Imaging before joining the faculty. He has served as director of MRI at Boston University Medical Center, director of MRI Research at UMass Chan Medical School, and clinical director of the Advanced MRI Center, also at UMass Chan Medical School.