Dr. Fox received his undergraduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1970-1974), and his M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School (1974-1978). Following training in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology at the Brigham and Women's Hospital (1978-1982), he pursued a Research Fellowship with Drs. Stuart Schlossman and Ellis Reinherz at the Dana-Farber Cancer Center (1982-l985) in the area of human T cell activation. He was appointed Assistant Professor in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Michigan in 1985, and was promoted to Associate Professor and Division Chief in 1990 and Professor in 1995. He also serves as Director of the Hybridoma Core facility for the University of Michigan Medical School, and is Director of the University of Michigan Clinical Autoimmunity Center of Excellence, funded by the NIH.
Dr. Fox's research focuses on defining and characterizing pathways of human T cell activation, determining the role of these pathways in the pathogenesis of autoimmune disease, investigating T cell interactions with synovial fibroblasts, understanding pathways of inflammation in arthritic joints, and understanding the role of interleukin-17 in arthritis. He is also studying the pathogenesis and treatment of scleroderma. He is author of more than 200 scientific papers and book chapters and has served on the Editorial Board of Arthritis & Rheumatism and as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Immunology and the Journal of Clinical Investigation. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians.
In 2007-2008, Dr. Fox served as the seventy-first President of the American College of Rheumatology and the sixth ACR President from the University of Michigan