David Olson

Summary:

I am a perinatal physiologist; my work is dedicated to improving women's pregnancy health, fetal and newborn health. My laboratory focuses on discovery of basic physiological, cellular and molecular mechanisms of PTB, on developing new means of diagnosing women at risk and on development of new therapeutic interventions to delay preterm delivery and optimize fetal and newborn health. With my international collaborators, we examine the roles of pro-inflammatory cytokines, interleukin (IL)-1? and -6, how they lead to uterine activation for labour. I also collaborate extensively to study the role of stress and allostatic load across generations and throughout the life course and their effects upon PTB and adverse newborn development. With my collaborators we study the basic mechanisms of prenatal maternal stress in an animal model, and then we complement this work through studies examining the effects of stressful situations in pregnant vulnerable women. We also test interventions in these human cohorts to reduce depression & anxiety and increase resilience. I have founded two companies, Livmor Diagnostics and Maternica Therapeutics (maternicarx.ca), to translate our discoveries.