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Ranked among the world’s top medical schools with the fifth-largest MD enrollment in North America, the UBC Faculty of Medicine is a leader in both the science and the practice of medicine. Across British Columbia, more than 12,000 faculty and staff are training the next generation of doctors, health care professionals, and medical researchers, making remarkable discoveries to help create the pathways to better health for our communities at home and around the world.
The UBC Faculty of Medicine offers a diverse array of training opportunities including cutting-edge research experiences in the biosciences, globally recognized population health education, quality health professional training, as well as several certificate and online training options. The Faculty of Medicine is home to more than 1,700 graduate students housed in 20 graduate programs (14 of which offer doctoral research options). Year after year, research excellence in the Faculty of Medicine is supported by investment from funding sources here at home and around the globe, receiving approximately more than $1.8B in total research funding since 2016.
We value our trainees and the creative input they have to scholarly activities at UBC. Our priority is to enable their maximum potential through flexible opportunities that provide a breadth of experiences tailored to their own individual career objectives. We maintain high standards of excellence, and work to create a community of intellectually and socially engaged scholars that work collaboratively with each other, the university, and the world, with the overarching goal of promoting the health of individuals and communities.
Most Faculty research is conducted under the auspices of 23 centres and institutes that are part of UBC or affiliated with it, in collaboration with our health partners.
UBC Faculty of Medicine provides innovative educational and research programs in the areas of health and life sciences through an integrated and province-wide delivery model in facilities at locations throughout British Columbia.
The Life Sciences Centre is the largest building on the UBC Vancouver campus. Completed in 2004, the $125 million, 52,165 sq metres building was built to accommodate the distributed medical educational program and the Life Sciences Institute.
The Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health (DMCBH), a partnership between the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health, unites under one roof research and clinical expertise in neuroscience, psychiatry and neurology in order to accelerate discovery and translate new knowledge into better treatment and prevention strategies. DMCBH has both laboratory and clinical research areas within the Centre proper and in the UBC Hospital Koerner Pavilion. Our core facilities are essential to ongoing collaboration, teaching, and research.
The BC Children's Hospital Research Institute is it the largest research institute of its kind in Western Canada in terms of people, productivity, funding and size. With more than 350,000 square feet of space, the Institute has both 'wet bench' laboratory and 'dry lab' clinical research areas, and other areas to facilitate particular areas of research and training.
New knowledge and innovation are crucial to successfully identifying, addressing and overcoming the increasingly complex health-related challenges that influence the lives of all of us – in British Columbia, in Canada, and in countries and communities around the globe.
The UBC Faculty of Medicine is recognized nationally and internationally for research innovation that advances knowledge and translates new discoveries to improve the health and well-being of individuals and communities. Research opportunities feature extensive collaborations across other faculties, health institutions and health partners across British Columbia, Canada and internationally.
The Faculty provides and fosters research excellence across the full continuum, from basic science to applied science and then to knowledge implementation, with a focus on precision health; cancer; brain and mental health; heart and lung health; population health; and chronic diseases.
| Name | Academic Unit(s) | Research Interests |
|---|---|---|
| Hoekstra, Femke | Division of Social Medicine | Knowledge translation and implementation science in health; Patient and citizen engagement research; Health promotion and disease prevention; Other social sciences; Implementation Science; Rural Health; Virtual health innovation; Research partnerships; Health Promotion; rehabilitation |
| Hoffman, Bradford | Department of Surgery | Understanding how the genes critical to endocrine pancreas development, as well as ?-cell function and proliferation are regulated is essential for the development of novel strategies for the production of insulin-secreting cells, and for improving the efficacy of available transplantable material. |
| Hohl, Corinne | Department of Emergency Medicine | Emergency Medicine; Epidemiology; Pharmacoepidemiology; Health Information Systems; Health Care Organization; Decision Making; Patient Safety; Medication Safety; Adverse Drug Events; Drug safety and effectiveness; Health Information Technology; Clinical Decision Making; Health services research; Adverse Event Reporting |
| Holsti, Liisa | Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy | Medical, health and life sciences; premature infants; neurodevelopment; stress; pain; measurement; technology transfer; sucrose; rehabilitation; pediatrics |
| Holt, Robert | Department of Medical Genetics, Department of Psychiatry | Immunogenetics, Metagenomics - Infectious agents in Cancer, Cancer Genomes, Neurobiology, DNA Sequencing |
| Honer, William | Department of Psychiatry | Brain disorders, risk factors for disease |
| Honey, Christopher Richard | Department of Surgery | Neurosurgery, deep brain stimulation, trigeminal neuralgia, menifacial spasm, movement disorders, mood, pain |
| Hoodless, Pamela | Department of Medical Genetics, School of Biomedical Engineering | Computational cell biology; Cancer; Genomics; Medical and biomedical engineering; Nucleic acids studies; Developmental Genetics; Embryology; Embryonic Development; Epigenetics; Heart Valve / Valvular Diseases; Heart valve formation; Liver; Liver development; Stem Cells and Organogenesis; transcriptional regulation |
| Howe, Tami | School of Audiology and Speech Sciences | Acquired language disorders, aphasia |
| Hsiung, Ging-Yuek Robin | Division of Neurology | Dementia, Cognitive and Behavioural Neurology, Neurodegeneration, Alzheimer Disease, Frontotemporal Dementia, Music Therapy in Dementia, Genetics of Dementia, Dementia Clinical Trials |
| Hunt, Michael | Department of Physical Therapy | Physical therapy; Rehabilitation medicine; Arthritis / Osteo-Arthritis; biomechanics; exercise; Joints (Articulations); musculoskeletal; Musculoskeletal Deformation; Neuromuscular Diseases; Orthoses and Prostheses; Physical Activity; rehabilitation |
| Huntsman, David | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology | hereditary cancer, molecular pathology, cancer biomarkers, Pancreas centre |
| Huot, Suzanne | Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy | Occupational therapy; Human geography; asylum seekers; bilingualism; community-engaged research; critical theory; francophone minority communities; francophones; french; Gender; immigration; intersectionality; Migration Studies; Migrations, Populations, Cultural Exchanges; occupational science; Qualitative research; refugees; social inclusion; social integration; Platform economy |
| Hutcheon, Jennifer | Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology | Perinatal epidemiology ; Perinatal research methods; Fetal growth restriction; Severe maternal morbidity; Improving the reference charts used to assess fetal growth and maternal weight gain in pregnancy; Evaluating the impact of obstetrical health care policies on maternal and infant health; Developing clinical prediction models for the identification of adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes |
| Illes, Judy | Division of Neurology | Medical biotechnology; Biomedical Ethics; Aging and dementia; Neurodevelopmental disorders; Brain Injury; Stem Cells; Neurotechnology; Neuroethics |
| Isaac, Kathryn | Department of Surgery | Surgery; Breast Reconstruction Surgery |
| Jamieson, Amy | Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology | |
| Jan, Eric | Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology | Biochemistry; Virus; Nucleic Acids; Proteomics; Antiviral innate immunity; Zika; coxsackievirus; enterovirus; Innate immunity; molecular biology; picornavirus; protease; Protein synthesis; RNA; RNA structure function; RNA virus; ribosome; SARS; tRNA; translation; Virology; virus host interactions; mRNA therapeutics |
| Janssen, Patricia | School of Population and Public Health | Health sciences; Public and population health; Gestation / Parturition; health of marginalized women; Lifestyle Determinants and Health; maternal child health; mobile health for pregnancy and parenting; Perinatal Period; social determinants of health |
| Jarus, Tal | Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy | Occupational therapy; Rehabilitation medicine; Disciplinary education; art-based research; disabled practitioners;; Disabled students;; diversifying health and human service professions; Justice and equity in health professions |
| Jenstad, Lorienne | School of Audiology and Speech Sciences | Other health sciences; hearing aids; Aging; audiology; hearing health; amplification |
| Jevitt, Cecilia | Department of Family Practice | Medical, health and life sciences; Midwifery; perinatal obesity; weight management in pregnancy; obesity prevention; breastfeeding/lactation; prenatal nutrition |
| Jiang, Xiaoyan | Department of Medical Genetics | Cancer drug development and therapeutics |
| John Peter, Arun | Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences | Lipid transport, Membrane contact sites, Organelle homeostasis, Lipid quality control, Synthetic biology, Lipidomics |
| Johnson, James | Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences, Department of Surgery | diabetes, hormones, cell biology, signal transduction, apoptosis or programmed cell death, heart failure, heart disease, calcium signalling, pancreatic cancer, obesity, longevity, imaging, Causes of type 1 and type 2 diabetes at a molecular level discovery of genes and associated gene networks linked to diabetes risk and by known risk factors that predispose individuals to diabetes |
This is an incomplete sample of recent publications in chronological order by UBC faculty members with a primary appointment in the Faculty of Medicine.
| Year | Citation | Program |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Dr. Yoon studied activity-regulated genes that are crucial in both the brain and pancreas for responding to the body's nutrient levels. Her findings showed the important role of a gene in the proper function of brain cells that control appetite and body weight, which highlighted new potential avenues of study for future obesity therapies. | Doctor of Philosophy in Cell and Developmental Biology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Lu's investigation looked at oncogenic splice errors in the human MET receptor. This receptor acts like an engine that drives cancer metastasis, and his results uncovered functional dependencies that can be targeted to properly shut it down. These findings can be translated to improve treatments for those battling advanced stages of lung cancer. | Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Oncology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Immune responses are crucial for protection against diseases. Dr. Pournia's research showed an unconventional role for a protein in various cellular processes that are important for development and responses of one of the cells of our immune system. These findings could be important for development and fine tuning of novel therapeutic approaches. | Doctor of Philosophy in Cell and Developmental Biology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Ip studied the development of children assessed for autism spectrum disorder. Dr. Ip found that, regardless of diagnosis, these children all had developmental differences compared to neurotypical children. The findings stress the importance of moving towards needs and function-based funding and services in school and in the community. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Cederberg interrogated the role of myeloid cells in the tumour microenvironment. Her dissertation work enhances our understanding of the interplay between innate and adaptive immune cells in solid tumours and identifies novel intervention points for the treatment of primary and metastatic disease. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Andrade-Rivas studies pollution in globalized food systems. Using systems thinking, planetary health, and geospatial sciences, he evaluated the nationwide risk of pesticide exposure and adverse birth outcomes in Ecuador. He also collaborated with the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, co-leading a marine toxicology study of their traditional food systems. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Thomson studied the mechanisms that regulate expression of the HTT gene that causes the neurodegenerative disorder Huntington's disease, and developed a method for improving the delivery of therapeutic nucleic acids to neurons. Her research informed the design of a new strategy for Huntington's disease treatment that targets its genetic origin. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Schaffner studied the role of epigenetics in Parkinson's disease. She found that rare and common genetic variation, lifestyle, and pesticide exposure were associated with DNA modifications in blood and brain. Her work highlights how molecular pathways to Parkinson's disease may differ between individuals. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Kamensek's research examined the reciprocal relationship between social interest, visual experience, and face recognition abilities in autism spectrum disorder. His findings challenge the notion of a singular cause for face recognition challenges in autism and may pave the way for potential interventions aimed at improving these abilities. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Bellwood developed a novel method to document current medical practices aimed at changing human behaviour and inform strategies to improve such practices using the example of prescribing physical activity in primary care. This method has a potential application beyond physical activity prescribing and beyond primary care in future research. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
