Dr. Douglas D. Fraser, MD, PhD, FRCPC
Children’s Health Research Institute
Clinician Scientist, Child Health and Well-Being Program
Children’s Hospital of Western Ontario
Consultant, Paediatric Critical Care Medicine
University of Western Ontario
Assistant Professor, Departments of Paediatrics, Physiology & Pharmacology
and Clinical Neurological Sciences
Other Appointments
Research Director, Paediatric Critical Care Medicine
Clinician Scientist, Centre for Critical Illness Research
Contact Information
Tel: (519) 685-8500 Ext. 55427 (Research Office)
Ext. 58386 (Clinical Office)
Fax: (519) 685-8186
E-mail: Douglas.fraser@lhsc.on.ca
Brief Biography
Dr. Fraser received his BSc at the University of Calgary in 1990. He then pursued his MD/PhD in the Neuroscience Research Group also at the University of Calgary. Pre-doctoral studentships were awarded to Dr. Fraser from the MRC, the AHFMR and the Savoy Foundation. Post-doctoral Fellowship awards were then obtained from the MRC, AHFMR, NSERC and Epilepsy Canada. He subsequently trained in Paediatrics and became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Queen’s University. He received further clinical fellowship training at the University of Ottawa in Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Fraser is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and holds a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Strategic Training Fellowship in the Canadian Child Health Clinician Scientist Program.
Dr. Fraser became an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Paediatrics, Physiology & Pharmacology and Clinical Neurological Sciences at The University of Western Ontario in 2003.
Research Interests
• cellular mechanisms underlying cerebral edema in children
Research Activities
The Paediatric Critical Care Unit at the Children’s Hospital of Western Ontario admits 800 critically ill children per year. A substantial number of these children have cerebral edema, or severe brain swelling, caused by a wide variety of insults (i.e. trauma, stroke, status epilepticus, metabolic disturbances and diabetic ketoacidosis). If cerebral edema is severe, the elevated intracranial pressure leads to brain herniation and death. Despite the high morbidity and mortality associated with cerebral edema, the treatment options are limited, illustrating our poor understanding of the cellular mechanisms underlying brain injury and swelling.
Dr. Fraser’s research is focused on determining the cellular mechanisms underlying disorders such as epilepsy, traumatic brain injury, and cerebral edema. The aims of his laboratory research are (1) to determine the cellular mechanisms underlying cerebral edema following brain injury and (2) to identify novel therapeutic targets and pharmacological agents to reduce or inhibit brain swelling. To this end, he is using state-of-the-art molecular, cellular, electrophysiological, and optical imaging techniques to quantitatively evaluate cellular swelling in brain tissue. We are currently focusing our investigations on the roles of the membrane sodium-hydrogen exchangers (NHEs) and aquaporin water channels (AQPs) in brain tissue following traumatic and metabolic injury.
Dr. Fraser’s work has been published in several high impact journals such as Neuron, the Journal of Neuroscience, Annals of Neurology and Neurology. He has received prestigious international research awards from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Society for Pediatric Research. Dr. Fraser has been an invited speaker at eleven international meetings and has presented invited seminars at over twenty academic centers.
- Rose KL, Pin CL, Wang R, Fraser DD. (2007). Combined insulin and bicarbonate therapy elicits cerebral edema in a juvenile mouse model of diabetic ketoacidosis. Pediatric Research. 61:301-306.
- Wei W, Murphy B, Dow KE, Andrew RD, Fraser DD. (2004). Systemic adrenocorticotropin hormone (ACTH) treatment down regulates corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) and CRH-binding protein in the infant rat hippocampus. Pediatric Research. 55:604-610.
- Fraser DD, Whiting S, Andrew RD, MacDonald A, Musa-Veloso K, Cunnane SC. (2003). Elevated polyunsaturated fatty acids in blood serum obtained from children on the ketogenic diet. Neurology. 60:1026-1029.
- Wei W, Dow K, Fraser DD. (2001). Elevated CRH and CRH-R1 mRNA in post-mortem brain obtained from children with generalized epilepsy. Annals of Neurology. 50:404-409.
- Fraser DD, Doll D and MacVicar BA (2001). Serine/threonine protein phosphatases and synaptic inhibition regulate the expression of cholinergic-dependent plateau potentials. Journal of Neurophysiology 85:1197-1205.
