Back to School 2024
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Every day across British Columbia, trainees and researchers at the UBC Faculty of Medicine are turning skills into jobs, investments into discoveries, and discoveries into solutions that are transforming health for everyone.
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.
Research Centres
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.
Centres & Institutes
- BC Cancer Research Institute
- BC Centre on Substance Use
- BC Children's Hospital Research Institute
- Centre for Blood Research
- Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Management
- Centre for Excellence in Indigenous Health
- Centre for Health Education Scholarship
- Centre for Health Evaluation & Outcome Sciences
- Centre for Health Services & Policy Research
- Centre for Heart Lung Innovation
- Centre for Aging Smart
- Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health
- Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging
- Human Early Learning Partnership
- Institute of Mental Health
- International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD)
- Life Sciences Institute
- Providence Health Care Research Institute
- UBC Centre for Disease Control
- Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute
- Vancouver Prostate Centre
- W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics
- Women's Health Research Centre
Research Groups
- Allan McGavin Sports Medicine Centre
- BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS
- MRI Research Centre
- National Core for Neuroethics
- OVCARE (BC’s Ovarian Cancer Research Team)
- Pacific Parkinson’s Research Centre
- PC-TRiADD (Prostate Centre’s Translational Research Initiative for Accelerated Discovery and Development)
- Stone Centre
- Vancouver Stroke Program
Research Facilities
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.
Research Highlights
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.
Schools / Departments
Department
Graduate Degree Programs
Recent Publications
This is an incomplete sample of recent publications in chronological order by UBC faculty members with a primary appointment in the Faculty of Medicine.
Recent Thesis Submissions
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Progranulin function and regulation in brain disease (MEDG - PHD)
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Airway epithelial responses to models of SARS-CoV-2 (MEDX - MSC)
Doctoral Citations
A doctoral citation summarizes the nature of the independent research, provides a high-level overview of the study, states the significance of the work and says who will benefit from the findings in clear, non-specialized language, so that members of a lay audience will understand it.
| Year | Citation | Program |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Dr. Tadavarty has found that sleep-deprivation adversely affects synaptic transmission in the central nervous system. His observations enable a better understanding of the deficits associated with sleep loss. The identified changes in neurotransmission help in developing drug targets for ameliorating such effects. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmacology (PhD) |
| 2012 | Dr. Zardan studied the mechanism through which prostate cancer cells acquire the ability to survive the conventional cancer treatments. Through finding two new mechanisms that inhibit cancer cell survival, her research paved the way for development of new and more promising strategies to treat advanced stages of prostate cancer. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2012 | Dr. Sun investigated the subcellular and molecular events in cells infected by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria responsible for tuberculosis. His research on specific mycobacterial proteins involved in interfering with the host immune system contributes to the development of potential therapeutics and vaccines against tuberculosis. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2012 | Dr. Kozoriz examined how gap junction proteins play a role in cellular damage. His work furthers our understanding of how these proteins can protect the brain during injury. | Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy (MDPhD) |
| 2012 | Dr. Lo has identified CXCR3 as a key growth factor for basal cell carcinoma skin cancer. The finding may lead to the development of new drug treatments as an alternative to surgical excision. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2012 | Dr. Dalal investigated the secretion of proteins and ions across the cell membrane of bacteria. He showed that twin copies of a specialized membrane channel, termed SecY, are likely the functional unit of this basic and essential process that is common to all living cells. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |
| 2012 | Dr. Cotton explored the field of epigenetics, which studies how genes are silenced without direct DNA changes. Her research used the naturally silenced female X chromosome to understand normal patterns of gene silencing. Epigenetic research provides insight into diseases resulting from incorrect gene expression without DNA mutations. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2012 | Dr. Leung discovered novel epigenetic pathways employed by mouse embryonic stem cells to silence endogenous retroviruses. His findings have elucidated how stem cells repress parasitic elements in the genome and have significant implications in potential cancer treatments. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2012 | Dr. Sallam investigated why certain blood vessels are more prone than others to develop diabetic complications, which reslut in higher morbidity and mortality rates. Understanding vascular heterogeneity will open new venues for developing therapies that target specific vascular beds with minimal systemic side effects. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmacology (PhD) |
| 2012 | Dr. Mickleborough studied visual attention in people who get migraine headaches. She found that migraine sufferers are less able to ignore distracting visual information. Her work suggests the abnormality arises due to heightened sensitivity in the visual cortex. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |