David Fedida

David Fedida obtained his B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Leeds in England in cardiac electrophysiology and his medical Degree (BM, B.Ch.) from Oxford University. After a brief period spent in residency training in General Surgery and Cardiovascular Medicine in the UK, he spent postdoctoral periods at Oxford with Denis Noble, Wayne Giles in Calgary, and Arthur Brown at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas where he first identified Kv1.5 as the molecular basis of the delayed rectifier, IKur, in human atrium.

Presently he is a Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics with funding from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of BC and Yukon and The Canadian Institutes for Health Research. This funding is to study molecular mechanisms for the gating of voltage-activated potassium channels, trafficking of potassium channels in the heart and for the discovery of small molecule inhibitors of viral ion channels, viroporins, for treatment of viral infections.

David Fedida is also a consultant for Cardiome Pharma Corp in Vancouver where he has been involved in the design and electrophysiological testing of Cardiome’s agents for the treatment of supraventricular arrhythmias – notably Vernakalant, which has been shown to be successful in the conversion of recent onset atrial fibrillation (AF) in Phase II and III trials and has European approval for the IV treatment of AF.

BSc Hon Class I (Physiology), Leeds University, UK
PhD (Cardiac Electrophysiology), Leeds University, UK
BMBCh (Clinical Medicine), Oxford University, UK