Prof. Paul Foster

The Woolcock Institute of Medical Research has completed its move from Sydney University to Macquarie University and has taken on a new director.

The institute that focuses on sleep and respiratory disorders relocated from its long time Glebe-based premises to a new purpose built centre at Macquarie Park on 2 April.

As previously reported in the limbic, the Woolcock made a major decision to relocate its 200 researchers after more than 40 years affiliation with the University of Sydney when the university sold the institute’s Glebe premises to property developers for $39 million in 2021.

The Woolcock has also announced the appointment of its new Executive Director, immunologist Professor Paul Foster,  who will take over from Professor Carol Armour in August.

Professor Foster has research interests in asthma, including the mechanisms of inflammation, infection, immune responses and genetic factors, and has been at the Hunter Medical Research Institute at the University of Newcastle since 2003.

Prof Carol Armour

His predecessor Professor Armour has been Executive Director of the Woolcock for 12 years and as a Professor at Sydney University has research interests in asthma ranging from the cellular mechanisms to the translation of new ways to treat asthma within the health system.

As part of his appointment at the Woolcock, Professor Foster will join Macquarie Medical School.

Macquarie University Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Medicine and Health, Professor Patrick McNeil, welcomed the new appointment.

“We have been very lucky to have worked so closely with Professor Armour as part of the Woolcock’s primary affiliation with Macquarie University, and we wish her well in her retirement,” he said.

“Professor Foster is a worthy successor in the role, and we look forward to him commencing at the Woolcock, and as part of the Macquarie Medical School’s research family.”

Meanwhile Woolcock researchers have said they will be exploring new opportunities opened up by collaboration with researchers and academics at Macquarie University.

Biologist and Research Leader of the Woolcock’s Respiratory Cellular and Molecular Biology group, Distinguished Professor Brian Oliver, said he was excited by the prospect of working with the medical staff at Macquarie University Hospital.

“I’m looking forward to reconnecting with those people and with the clinical side of research, to being closely connected to the hospital system and having access to a full clinical service,” he said.

“When you’re doing studies in the lab, you need to actually know what you’re dealing with, what type of asthma are you looking at? What actually are the samples in front of you?”

“The only way forward is to work with people who are working with patients and doing the best possible characterisation of disease. Then you can take samples which are contemporary and apply modern technology to the analysis of those samples to find solutions.”

The new Woolcock Institute of Medical Research is based at 2 Innovation Road, Macquarie Park, NSW.