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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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Dr Lidstone studied the placebo effect in Parkinson's disease. She found that the strength of belief of improvement has a profound effect on dopamine levels in the brain, and that the brain can reproduce the effect of medication in response to a placebo. These findings are important for the design of clinical trials and the treatment of patients. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2008 | Dr Cox studied the role of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), a family of enzymes that cleave proteins, in regulating inflammatory processes. This research clarifies the contribution of MMPs in immune cell recruitment and diseases such as arthritis, leading to improved understanding of which MMPs are suitable drug targets for novel therapeutics. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |
| 2008 | Dr. Musende demonstrated that cancer drugs can be combined with compounds isolated from ginseng to achieve better therapeutic activities. His work focused on preclinical models of prostate cancer and yielded evidence of synergy. This research contributes to our quest to minimize side effects of chemotherapy while maintaining anticancer efficacy. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2008 | Dr. Romanuik determined the molecular changes that occur during the progression of prostate cancer to advanced disease. Her research provided evidence for the mechanisms of progression, and identified potential therapeutic targets and biomarkers of prostate cancer. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2008 | Dr. Witheford examined a cell-based transplantation therapeutic for spinal cord injury, olfactory ensheathing cells. She determined mechanisms used by these cells to promote the growth of specific axons after they are damaged by spinal cord injury. These investigations will contribute to directed therapies for the treatment of spinal cord injury. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2008 | Dr. Wong's research involved resolving the molecular detail of chemokine receptors, a well sought after, but difficult to study group of drug targets. Taking these challenges in hand, she developed and applied novel approaches to study them, providing a basis to design drugs and diagnostic tools for AIDS, cancer and various chronic inflammatory diseases. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |
| 2008 | Alexander Scott's research, conducted in the Experimental Medicine program, focused on tendon overuse injuries. Dr Scott combined clinical and laboratory research to generate new insights into how tendons become injured through overuse. This research paves the way for future research into new treatments. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2008 | Dr. Hildebrand investigated how the activation of brain cell receptors alters the function of electrical proteins called calcium channels. His studies have helped us understand how the brain forms the complex electrical firing patterns that underlie normal functions such as sleep patterns as well as those of disease conditions such as epilepsy. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2008 | Dr. Coe studied the role of specific genomic alterations on the aggressive nature of small cell lung cancer. He accomplished this by developing novel high resolution genomic profiling tools and analysis software to study and compare lung cancer subtypes. His work has identified novel biochemical pathways associated with aggressive disease. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2008 | Dr. Gerrow studied how proteins are assembled in order to make synapses; the sites of connection and communication between neurons of the brain. Her work has provided new insights into the trafficking of scaffolding and adhesion proteins at synapses during brain development. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |