Dr. Simon Foster is an Adjunct Research Fellow in the Department of Pharmacology and Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute. Simon is an emerging leader in molecular pharmacology and cardiovascular physiology, with a particular research interest in cell signalling and G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) biology. He received his BA/BSc (Hons) degrees from the University of Melbourne (Australia) and his PhD from the University of Queensland (Australia) for studies on odorant and taste receptors in the heart. He was an independently-funded Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) from 2015-18, where he discovered novel peptide ligands for orphan receptors. Simon then returned to Australia in 2018 to investigate new aspects of chemokine receptor signalling in the Stone Lab at Monash University, before joining the Cardiac Bioengineering Group at QIMR Berghofer, where he is a Senior Research Officer. Simon is continuing to work closely with Prof Martin Stone on chemokine signalling, funded by an NHMRC Ideas Grant. His work at QIMR Berghofer focusses on the signalling pathways that underpin cardiac fibrosis using stem-cell derived human cardiac organoids.

Inflammation is the response of a tissue and its microvascular system to injury or infection. A hallmark of inflammation is the accumulation of leukocytes (white blood cells), which remove pathogens and necrotic tissue by phagocytosis and proteolytic degradation. However, excessive leukocyte recruitment or activity leads to the release of toxic substances and degradation of healthy tissue, i.e. inflammatory disease.

Leukocyte recruitment in inflammation is controlled by the expression and secretion of small proteins called chemokines at the site of inflammation and by the subsequent interaction of those chemokines with chemokine receptors located on the surfaces of circulating leukocytes. A detailed understanding of chemokine-receptor interactions is required in order to rationally develop novel therapeutic agents against inflammatory diseases. Our group is investigating several important aspects of chemokine and chemokine receptor biochemistry with the overall goals of better understanding and ultimately controlling their biological functions.