Russell Foster | |
|---|---|
.JPG) | |
| Born | (1959-08-19)19 August 1959 (age 65) |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | University of Bristol |
| Awards | Honma Prize (Japan), David G. Cogan Award (USA), Zoological Society Scientific and Edridge-Green Medals (UK) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Neuroscience |
| Institutions | University of Oxford |
| Thesis | An investigation of the extraretinal photoreceptors mediating photoperiodic induction in the Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) (1978) |
| Academic advisors | Brian Follett |
| Website | www |
Russell Grant Foster (born 1959)[1][2] is a British professor ofcircadianneuroscience, the Director of theNuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology and the Head of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute (SCNi).[3][4] He is also a Nicholas Kurti Senior Fellow atBrasenose College[5] at theUniversity of Oxford.[6] Foster and his group are credited with key contributions to the discovery of the non-rod, non-cone,photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (pRGCs) in the mammalianretina which provide input to thecircadian rhythm system. He has written and co-authored over a hundred scientific publications.[6]
Since 2018 he has beenEditor-in-Chief of theRoyal Society journalInterface Focus.
Foster attendedHeron Wood School in his nativeAldershot and studied at theUniversity of Bristol and graduated with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) inZoology in 1980. He also carried out postgraduate studies at theUniversity of Bristol under the supervision ofBrian Follett, and was awarded a PhD in 1984 for his thesis entitledAn investigation of the extraretinal photoreceptors mediating photoperiodic induction in theJapanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica).[7][8]
From 1988 to 1995 Foster was a member of theNational Science Foundation Center for Biological Rhythms at theUniversity of Virginia, where he worked closely withMichael Menaker.[4] In 1995, he returned to UK and started his own lab atImperial College, where he became Chair of Molecular Neuroscience within the Faculty of Medicine. He later transferred his laboratory to theUniversity of Oxford to engage in moretranslational research.[9]
While at the University of Virginia, Foster and Menaker performed experiments where thesuprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) was tested by neural transplantation of donor's SCN to a recipient with an ablated SCN. In the experiment, the donor was a mutant strain of hamster with a shortened circadian period. The recipient was awild-type hamster. Transplantation was done the other way around as well, with wild-type hamster as the donor and mutant strain hamster as the recipient. After the transplantation, the formerly wild-type hamster displayed a shortened period which resembled the mutant, and the mutant-strain hamster showed normal period. The SCN restored rhythm to arrhythmic recipients, which afterwards always exhibited the circadian period of the donor. This result led to the conclusion that the SCN is sufficient and necessary for mammalian circadian rhythms.[10]
In 1991, Foster and his colleagues provided evidence that rods and cones are not necessary forentrainment of an animal to light.[11] In this experiment, Foster gave light pulses to retinally degenerative mice. These mice werehomozygous for therd allele and were shown to have norods in their retina. Only a fewcones were found to remain in the retina. To study the effects of light entrainment, magnitude of phase shift of locomotor activity was measured. The results showed that both mice with normalretina and mice with degenerate retina showed similar entrainment patterns. Foster hypothesized that circadian photoreception occurs with a small number of cones without an outer layer or that an unrecognised class of photoreceptive cells are present.
In 1999, Foster studied light entrainment on mice without cones or both rods and cones.[12] Mice without cones or without both photoreceptive cells (rd/rd cl allele) still entrained to light. Meanwhile, mice with eyes removed could not entrain to light. Foster concluded that rods and cones are unnecessary for entrainment to light, and that themurine eye contains additional photoreceptive cell types. Later studies showed thatmelanopsin expressingphotoreceptive retinal ganglion cells (pGRCs) were accountable for non-rod, non-cone entrainment to light.[13][14]
He is the co-author with writer and broadcaster Leon Kreitzman of two popular science books on circadian rhythms,Rhythms of Life: The Biological Clocks that Control the Daily Lives of Every Living Thing[15][16] andSeasons of Life: The Biological Rhythms That Enable Living Things to Thrive and Survive.[17] He has also co-written a book titledSleep: a Very Short Introduction.[18] He wroteLife Time : The New Science of the Body Clock, and How It Can Revolutionize Your Sleep and Health.[19]
Foster was elected a fellow of theRoyal Society in 2008.[3]
Foster was appointedCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to science.[20][21]
Russell Foster was awarded withThe Daylight Award 2020 in the category Daylight Research, for his clinical studies in humans addressing important questions regarding light.
Foster has received recognition from around the world for his discovery of pRGCs:
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)