Phoebe Foster

PhD student

Phoebe is a third-year PhD student investigating the neurodevelopmental aspects of genetic frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

Having first joined the core GENFI team in August 2022 as a Research Assistant, she onboards new GENFI sites across Europe and Canada as a Site Qualification and Liaison Coordinator, co-manages the team’s websites, as well as supports coordination of the Participant Engagement Board and participant webinar series.

Phoebe had previously been a visitor to the team during her undergraduate placement year (2020-21) as part of a BSc in Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of Manchester. During this time, she worked on a GENFI project studying changes in empathy in people with FTD.

  • GENFI Investigator’s Meeting 2026 (Lisbon, June): Investigating neuropsychiatric and neurobehavioural features in the GENFI cohort
  • ARUK 2026 Research Conference (Manchester, February): Investigating presymptomatic cognitive differences in FTD genetic mutation carriers across adulthood 
  • TDP-43 Workshop 2025 (Paris, December): Novel digital measures in C9orf72-related FTD/ALS and the NeuroDev study
  • GENFI Investigator’s Meeting 2025 (Munich, June): An update on cognition in young C9orf72 expansion carriers
  • Pint of Science 2025 (London, May): Unraveling the social mind: what happens in frontotemporal dementia
  • GENFI Investigator’s Meeting 2024 (Barcelona, June): Early cognitive and neuropsychiatric features in C9orf72 expansion families
  • FTD Prevention Initiative 2023 Therapeutics Meeting (Washington DC, September): The state of therapeutics in tau: results from the MAPT survey
  • FTD Rare Dementia Support Group Annual Meeting 2023 (London, March): An update on frontotemporal dementia research and clinical trials
  • Examining empathy deficits across familial forms of frontotemporal dementia within the GENFI cohort. Foster PH, Russell LL, Peakman G, Convery RS, Bouzigues A, Greaves CV, Bocchetta M, Cash DM, van Swieten JC, Jiskoot LC, Moreno F, Sanchez-Valle R, Laforce R, Graff C, Masellis M, Tartaglia C, Rowe JB, Borroni B, Finger E, Synofzik M, Galimberti D, Vandenberghe R, de Mendonça A, Butler CR, Gerhard A, Ducharme S, Le Ber I, Tagliavini F, Santana I, Pasquier F, Levin J, Danek A, Otto M, Sorbi S, Rohrer JD; Genetic FTD Initiative (GENFI). Cortex. 2022;150:12-28.