ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR JOHN FOSTER

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Fulbright Senior Scholar

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“Over 250,000 people in Australia and the USA are affected by spinal damage to some degree; countless others suffer from nerve damage. A simple device that can be applied rapidly and consistently to allow better healing of damaged nerves would have worldwide social and healthcare benefits.”

Associate Professor John Foster from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), has won a 2009 Fulbright Senior Scholarship to undertake research at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. He will join forces with another world-leading researcher to look at combining two key technologies to develop a procedure to improve nerve regeneration.

Professor Foster's group, The Bio/Polymer Research Group (BRG), has recently developed a new surgical bioadhesive that overcomes the disadvantages associated with current surgical procedures. It is activated by laser and is able to help severed nerves to re-connect.

Professor Stephen Francis Badylak's Research Group at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine has developed a natural scaffolding material that can be absorbed by the body, called an extracellular matrix (ECM). This material attracts and supports the growth of important cells that promote healing by encouraging new tissue that resembles the original tissue in structure and function. The drawback of this technique is that it is reliant upon the use of stitches.

“Professor Badylak and I will combine our technologies with the aim of producing an innovative technology for improved nerve repair,” Professor Foster said. “If successful, the development of this technology will have a lasting legacy of social and healthcare.”

“For instance, one application would be in the area of spinal cord injuries. Given the rarity of neurological recovery from spinal cord injuries, the research in this proposal has tremendous implications.”

“The proposed technological combination will also be suited to a variety of other wounds or surgical incisions, and would support faster and enhanced tissue repair. It is particularly appropriate in wounds where fluid leakage, such as blood or cerebrospinal fluid, may occur as the bioadhesive also seals such wounds.”

John has a BSc (Hons) from the University of Wales in the UK and a PhD from Aston University, (UK). He also has recognition as a Chartered Biologist (a European qualification) with the Institute of Biology, UK, and was recently elected a Fellow of that Royal Society. John has more than 60 peer-reviewed science publications, 2 international patents and over 70 conference publications.