Justin Fraser, MD

Justin Fraser is the Director of Cerebrovascular Surgery at the University of Kentucky. He currently practices both open and endovascular cerebrovascular neurosurgery, including providing all facets of interventional treatment for hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke. His research has included both preclinical benchwork and clinical efforts and has resulted in the publication of more than 90 peer-reviewed papers. His current research focus is the understanding of molecular mechanisms of ischemic stroke and how those mechanisms are related to clinical aspects such as patient-specific factors and outcomes. Justin’s clinical background has included publications in the management of acute ischemic stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and interventional management of cerebrovascular disease. He is and has been the principal investigator and site-PI on several clinical trials, including several multicenter clinical trials evaluating aneurysm treatments, as well as multiple registries for treatment of ischemic stroke. He is currently PI for two investigator-initiated Phase I studies of intra-arterial administration of neuroprotective agents in acute stroke. I was also PI of a funded Phase I study to evaluate a point-of-care detection device that uses a drop of whole blood to determine the presence of stroke and traumatic brain injury through a serum biomarker. Justin’s current focus on the stroke vascular micro-environment and neuroprotective therapies has led to publication and presentation of 6 journal articles, two invited commentaries, and over 40 abstracts in the last 4 years. Furthermore, as co-mentor to graduate students, he has co-chaired their Ph.D. committees, providing guidance on translational research. Hismost recent focus is as overall PI of the BACTRAC prospectively enrolling stroke tissue bank, which captures tissue and blood during thrombectomy, clinical and radiographic data, and outcomes. Through this bank and its related crossdisciplinary collaboration, they are discovering active processes of intracranial pathophysiology during acute large vessel occlusive stroke. This effort is directly linked to the current proposal, entitled “Plasma protein biomarkers within intracranial blood from stroke patients determined by machine learning.” Our work in BACTRAC has provided vital preliminary data for this proposal, and will fuel the engine of data to drive the specific aims forward.