Mary Helen Foster

Mary Helen Foster is a Professor of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine and a Member of the Duke Cancer Institute. She leads the Foster Lab, which is dedicated to researching autoimmune glomerulonephritis, a major cause of acute and chronic kidney disease worldwide. Her laboratory explores the origins and regulation of pathogenic immune responses that underlie glomerulonephritis through innovative experimental approaches.

Dr. Foster received her M.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (1982), completed her Medical Residency at the University of Virginia (1982-1985), and undertook a Nephrology Fellowship at Tufts University (1985-1989). Her academic journey has positioned her at the forefront of autoimmune kidney disease research.

Her primary research interests focus on identifying tolerance mechanisms that regulate nephritogenic lymphocytes, with special emphasis on B cells and autoantibodies. She investigates the molecular basis of tolerance, identifies defects in immune regulation, examines genetic autoimmune predisposition, and determines environmental disease triggers. Her lab has developed numerous autoantibody transgenic models relevant to immune nephritis in both kidney-restricted (Goodpasture syndrome) and systemic autoimmunity (systemic lupus erythematosus), allowing for mechanistic dissection using immunological, molecular biological, and proteomics approaches.

Analysis of Dr. Foster's recent publications reveals a strong emphasis on gene-environment interactions in autoimmunity, particularly how environmental exposures like silica dust trigger autoimmune responses. Her work bridges basic immunological research with clinical applications, aiming to develop novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to improve patient outcomes in autoimmune kidney diseases.

• Identification of Host-Specific Determinants of APOL1-associated COVAN (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, 2024-2029)
• U2C/TL1 NC KUH TRIO Administrative Core (University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, 2023-2028)
• Gene-Environment Collaboration in Autoimmune Disease (National Institutes of Health, 2017-2023)
• Duke Training Grant in Nephrology (National Institutes of Health, 1995-2023)

Dr. Foster actively mentors undergraduate and medical students as well as postdoctoral scientists in her laboratory. Her research environment includes over 30 unique mutant murine lines to study autoimmunity within complex immunological microenvironments. She has developed an autoantibody transgene reporter system to track cell populations in vivo across multiple autoimmune backgrounds, modeling the genetic complexity of the outbred human population. Her lab also utilizes humanized immune system models to facilitate critical in vivo studies of human T cell-B cell interactions in the context of disease susceptibility genes and environmental exposures.