James Fox

Prof. Fox obtained his Master of Science degree in Medical Microbiology at Stanford University and a Doctor in Veterinary Medicine at the Colorado State University, Fort Collins. Dr. Fox is an Adjunct Professor at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania, School of Veterinary Medicine. He is a Diplomate and a past president of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine, past president of the Massachusetts Society of Medical Research, past chairman of AAALAC Council, and past chairman of the NCCR/NIH Comparative Medicine Study Section. He also is an elected fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America. In 2004 Professor Fox was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. James Fox is a Professor and Director of the Division of Comparative Medicine and a Professor in the Department of Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania, School of Veterinary Medicine. He is a Diplomate and a past president of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine, past president of the Massachusetts Society of Medical Research, past chairman of AAALAC Council, past chairman of the NCCR/NIH Comparative Medicine Study Section, past president of the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges, and past chairman of the National Association of Biomedical Research. He is also a member of various other organizations including AAAS, AALAS, AVMA, AAVMC, IDSA, ACLAM and ASM. He also is an elected fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America, an elected fellow of the American Gastroenterological Association, a past or current member of the Board of Directors of Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIM&R), ACLAM, ACLAD, AAALAC, MSMR, NABR and AAVMC. Professor Fox is the author of over 570 articles, 100 chapters, 4 patents and has edited and authored 15 texts, in the field of in vivo model development and comparative medicine. He has given over 250 invited lectures, consults nationally and internationally with government, academia and industry, has served on the editorial board of several journals, is a past member of the NIH/NCRR Scientific Advisory Council, and a past member of ILAR Council of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Fox was elected to the Institute Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2004. He has received numerous scientific awards including the AVMA’s Charles River Prize in Comparative Medicine, the AALAS Nathan Brewer Scientific Achievement Award, and the AVMA/ASLAP Excellence in Research Award. In 2006, Dr. Fox received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Colorado State University and in 2007 was selected as the inaugural recipient of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine Comparative Medicine Scientist Award. Dr. Fox was recently elected as an honorary member of the European Helicobacter Study group, and is the 2008 recipient of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science Charles A. Griffin Award. In 2013, Dr. Fox received the Excellence in Research Award from the American Association of Veterinary Medicine, followed in 2014 by the Pravin Bhatt Scientific Achievement Award from the American Association of Laboratory Animal Sciences. He has been studying infectious diseases of the gastrointestinal tract for the past 35 years and has focused on the pathogenesis of Campylobacter spp. and Helicobacter spp. infection in humans and animals. His laboratory developed the ferret as a model for both campylobacter and helicobacter associated disease as well as the first rodent model to study helicobacter associated gastric disease, including gastric cancer. Dr. Fox is considered an international authority on the epidemiology and pathogenesis of enterohepatic helicobacters in humans and animals. He is largely responsible for identifying, naming, and describing many of the diseases attributed to various Helicobacter species; most notably their association with hepatitis, liver tumors, inflammatory bowel disease and colon cancer. His laboratory has described the pivotal role that Helicobacter spp. play in the development of cholesterol gallstones in mice fed a lithogenic diet; thus linking this finding to his earlier description of Helicobacter spp. associated chronic cholecystitis and gallstones in Chilean women, a population at high risk of developing gallbladder cancer. He also has had a long-standing interest in zoonotic diseases as well as biosafety issues associated with in vivo models.

His past and current research has been funded by NIH and NCI, as well as by private industrial sources, for the past 40 years. He has been the principal investigator of an NIH postdoctoral training grant for veterinarians for the past 26 years and has trained 70 veterinarians for careers in biomedical research. He also has a NIH training for veterinary students and has introduced over 150 veterinary students to careers in biomedical research. He chaired a committee for the National Academy of Sciences which published a report entitled "National Need and Priorities for Veterinarians in Biomedical Research" which highlights the urgent need for increased numbers of veterinarians involved in the biomedical research arena. He is a past member of NAS "Committee to Assess the Current and Future Workforce Needs in Veterinary Medicine". Most recently he served as a member of the Physician-Scientist Workforce, commissioned by the Director of NIH.

Research Areas:

• Infectious Disease
• Microbial Pathogenesis

Selected Publications:

• Knutson, Charles G., Aswin Mangerich, Yu Zeng, Arkadiusz R. Raczynski, Rosa G. Liberman, Pilsoo Kang, Wenjie Ye, Erin G. Prestwich, Kun Lu, John S. Wishnok et al. "Chemical and cytokine features of innate immunity characterize serum and tissue profiles in inflammatory bowel disease." Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 110, no. 26 (2013): E2332-41.
• García, Alexis, Yan Feng, Nicola M. A. Parry, Amanda McCabe, Melissa W. Mobley, Kvin Lertpiriyapong, Mark T. Whary, and James G. Fox. "Helicobacter pylori infection does not promote hepatocellular cancer in a transgenic mouse model of hepatitis C virus pathogenesis." Gut Microbes 4, no. 6 (2013): 577-90.
• Lertpiriyapong, Kvin, Mark T. Whary, Sureshkumar Muthupalani, Jennifer L. Lofgren, Eric R. Gamazon, Yan Feng, Zhongming Ge, Timothy C. Wang, and James G. Fox. "Gastric colonisation with a restricted commensal microbiota replicates the promotion of neoplastic lesions by diverse intestinal microbiota in the Helicobacter pylori INS-GAS mouse model of gastric carcinogenesis." Gut 63, no. 1 (2014): 54-63.
• Lu, Kun, Ryan Phillip Abo, Katherine Ann Schlieper, Michelle E. Graffam, Stuart Levine, John S. Wishnok, James A. Swenberg, Steven R. Tannenbaum, and James G. Fox. "Arsenic exposure perturbs the gut microbiome and its metabolic profile in mice: an integrated metagenomics and metabolomics analysis." Environ Health Perspect 122, no. 3 (2014): 284-91.
• Zhao, Chun-Mei, Yoku Hayakawa, Yosuke Kodama, Sureshkumar Muthupalani, Christoph B. Westphalen, Gøran T. Andersen, Arnar Flatberg, Helene Johannessen, Richard A. Friedman, Bernhard W. Renz et al. "Denervation suppresses gastric tumorigenesis." Sci Transl Med 6, no. 250 (2014): 250ra115.