Home| Professor of Hepatology |
Contact details:
| Tel: | +44 20 7882 7242 |
| Fax: | +44 20 7882 2192 |
| Email: | g.r.foster@qmul.ac.uk |
| Address: |
Centre for Digestive Diseases, |
Biography
Graham Foster studied medicine at Oxford and The Royal London Hospital and he completed his clinical training in London before studying for a PhD. He completed his PhD in 1999 and studied the effects of the hepatitis B virus on the cellular response to interferon with George Stark and Ian Kerr at The Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London . He then returned to clinical practice at St Marys Hopsital in Paddington where he established a clinical and laboratory research program studying chronic hepatitis C infection and the role of type I interferon in therapy. He moved to Barts and The London School of Medicine in East London in 2003 where he became the Professor of Hepatology working within the Centre for Digestive Diseases.
Research Activity
The Liver Unit at Queen Marys has a major interest in clinical and scientific aspects of chronic viral hepatitis. Clinical research programs include an assessment of the disease burden in ethnic minority groups - the unit is coordinating a Department of Health funded study looking at the prevalence of viral hepatitis throughout the UK . The Liver Unit has a very active clinical trials program and clinical research projects include studies of novel genetically modified therapeutic vaccines for patients with chronic hepatitis B as well as studies evaluating the factors responsible for changes in the rate of fibrosis progression in patients with chronic hepatitis C.
The Liver Unit runs a successful laboratory research program studying the effects of the type I interferons on hepatotropic viral infections. Studies to identify host and viral factors that determine the response to therapy with chronic hepatitis B and chronic hepatitis C are in progress. The Liver Unit has a long history of collaborative research and, with Dr Michael Jacobs at University College , we are studying the effects of dengue virus (a human pathogen that is related to hepatitis C) on intracellular signaling pathways. Additional collaborative studies examining molecular factors that determine the development of steatohepatitis in patients with diabetes are in progress in conjunction with colleagues in the Department of Endocrinology.
Key Publications
• Forton D, Allsop J, Main J, Foster GR , Thomas H, Taylor-Robinson S. Evidence for a cerebral effect of the hepatitis C virus. Lancet 2001;358:38-39
• Caronia S, Bassendine MF, Barry R, Mills P, Naoumov NV , Fox R, Lowes J, Hollanders D, Murray-Lyon I, Irving WL, Goldin RD , Foster GR . Interferon plus amantadine versus interferon alone in the treatment of naive patients with chronic hepatitis C: a UK multicentre study. J Hepatol 2001;35(4):512-6
• D'Souza R, Sabin CA , Foster GR . Insulin resistance plays a significant role in liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C and in the response to antiviral therapy. Am J Gastroenterol. 2005 Jul;100(7):1509-15.
• D'Souza R,Glynn MJ, Alstead E,Kumar P, Sabin CA, Ushiro-Lumb I, Mears L, Feakins R, Foster GR . Natural History of Chronic Hepatitis C Infection: Long Term Follow-up of Asian Patients Infected in Childhood. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2005;3:910-7
• Foster GR , Fried MW, Hadziyannis SJ, Messinger D, Freivogel K, Weiland O. Prediction of sustained virological response in chronic hepatitis C patients treated with peginterferon alfa-2a(40KD) and ribavirin. Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology 2006 In press
• Reed JR, Vukmanovic-Stejic M, Soares MV, Cook JE, Fletcher JM, Orteu CH, Jackson S, Birch K, Foster GR , Salmon M, Beverley PCL, Rustin MHA, Akbar AN. Accelerated Telomere Erosion Drug Extra-Lymphoid T Cell Turnover in Humans. J Exp Med 2004;199:1433-43
• Foster GR , Masri S, David R, James M, Datta A, Runkell L, deDios C, Sizing I, Jones M, Lombardi G, Marelli-Berg FM, IFN-alpha subtypes differentially affect human T cell motility. J Immunol 2004 173:1663-1670
• Caronia S, McGarvey MJ, Goldin RD , Foster GR Intrahepatic expression of hepatitis C antigens is associated with suppression of apoptosis despite expression of Fas and HLA antigens. Journal of Viral Hepatitis 2004 11:511-518
• Jones M, Davidson A, Hibbert L, Gruenwald P, Schlaak J, Ball S, Foster GR , Jacobs M. Dengue virus inhibits interferon alpha signalling by reducing STAT2 expression. J Virol 2005:79:5414-20
• Scott K , Manunta M , Germain C , Smith P , Jones M , Mitchell P , Dessi D , Branigan Bamford K , Lechler RI , Fiori PL , Foster GR , Lombardi G . Qualitatively distinct patterns of cytokines are released by human dendritic cells in response to different pathogens. Immunology. 2005 Oct;116(2):245-54.
