Joel A. Block, MD, is the Willard L. Wood, MD, Professor of Rheumatology at Rush Medical College. He is Director of the Division of Rheumatology and Director of the Rush Center for Clinical Studies at Rush University Medical Center. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Chicago, earned an MD from Washington University in St. Louis, and trained in internal medicine and rheumatology at the University of Chicago and Rush University Medical Center, respectively. Block has served on numerous grant review panels for the NIH, Department of Defense, and multiple overseas governmental funding agencies, as well as domestic and foreign foundations. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the American College of Rheumatology and is an ex officio member of the Board of Directors of the Osteoarthritis Research Society International. He is a past chair of the Annual Meeting Planning Committee and the Committee on Education of the American College of Rheumatology. He serves as Editor in Chief of Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, and is on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Orthopaedic Research and the Journal of Clinical Rheumatology. Block’s early research focused on cartilage biology and chondrocytic proteoglycans, and several of his human chondrocyte cell models remain in use in laboratories on four continents. His interests subsequently broadened to include the role of aberrant biomechanical loading in lower extremity osteoarthritis. He leads a large multidisciplinary group that studies osteoarthritis from a broad perspective, including joint tissue biology, physiology of pain and mechanical mediators of osteoarthritis progression, all with a focus on identifying novel therapeutic strategies.
