Brian Foster, MSC, PhD
- Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Faculty
Languages
- English
Gender
MaleAbout Brian Foster
Professional Titles
- Director, Laboratory of Cardiovascular Biochemistry
Primary Academic Title
Associate Professor of Medicine
Background
Brian hails from Canada, born in Québec City, Québec (Oui, c’est vrai!). He graduated from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, with a Ph.D. in biochemistry. There, he studied both smooth muscle and cardiac muscle contractile proteins, caldesmon and troponin I respectively, in the Laboratory of Dr. Jennifer Van Eyk. He moved to Boston where he received an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship to examine the conformation of these proteins on thin filaments by electron microscopy and 3D image reconstruction, under mentors Dr. William Lehman of the Boston University School of Medicine and Dr. Albert Wang, formerly of the Boston Biomedical Research Institute. Brian came to The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Division of Cardiology to apply his training in biochemistry to some of the big issues in heart disease under mentors Dr. Eduardo Marbán and Dr. Brian O’Rourke.
Brian heads the Laboratory of Cardiovascular Biochemistry that employs a systems biology approach that encompasses the tools of proteomics, metabolomics, and molecular cardiology to investigate the mechanisms underlying heart failure progression.
Centers and Institutes
Contact for Research Inquiries
Ross Research Building
720 Rutland Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21205
Phone: (410) 614-0027
dbrianfoster@jhmi.edu
Research Interests
Cardiomyopathy, Heart Failure
Lab Website
Foster Lab - Lab Website
- The Foster Lab uses the tools of protein biochemistry and proteomics to tackle fundamental problems in the fields of cardiac preconditioning and heart failure. Protein networks are perturbed in heart disease in a manner that correlates only weakly with changes in mRNA transcripts. Moreover, proteomic techniques afford the systematic assessment of post-translational modifications that regulate the activity of proteins responsible for every aspect of heart function from electrical excitation to contraction and metabolism. Understanding the status of protein networks in the diseased state is, therefore, key to discovering new therapies. D. Brian Foster, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of medicine in the division of cardiology, and serves as Director of the Laboratory of Cardiovascular Biochemistry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Research Summary
The Foster Lab uses a systems biology approach that encompasses proteomics, metabolomics, network modeling, as well as cellular and molecular assessments of cardiac function in heart failure and cardiac ischemic preconditioning. Protein networks are perturbed in heart disease in a manner that correlates only weakly with changes in mRNA transcripts. Moreover, proteomic techniques afford the systematic assessment of post-translational modifications that regulate the activity of proteins responsible for every aspect of heart function from electrical excitation to contraction and metabolism. Understanding the status of protein networks in the diseased state is, therefore, key to discovering new therapies.
Memberships
- American Heart Association
- Biophysical Society
- US HUPO