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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 |
|---|---|---|
| Razack, Saleem | Department of Pediatrics | Models of Care for Children with Medical Complexity in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, Anti-Racism in Medical Education, Professional Socialization for Greater Social Justice |
| Redekop, Gary | Department of Surgery | Clinical trials in stroke and cerebrovascular disease, neurosurgery |
| Regier, Dean | School of Population and Public Health | theories of behavioral economics, personalized medicine, deliberative public engagement methods to inform healthcare priority setting |
| Reid, Gregor | Department of Pediatrics | Basic medicine and life sciences; paediatric cancer; cancer immunology; animal models of cancer |
| Reilly, Christopher | Department of Orthopaedics | Paediatric spine, Paediatric sports injuries, Paediatric trauma, Medical education |
| Renouf, Daniel | Division of Medical Oncology | Developmental Therapeutics; Pancreatic cancer; Colorectal Cancer; Cancer Genomics; Cancer Biomarkers |
| Rideout, Elizabeth | Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences | Sex differences; Metabolism; Cell Signaling Pathways; Development; Lifespan and Aging; Stress responses; Drosophila melanogaster |
| Robillard, Julie | Division of Neurology | Medical, health and life sciences; Patient experience/patient engagement; eHealth; Assistive technology; Neuroethics; Brain health technology; Artificial Intelligence; Dementia; mental health; Social robots; pediatrics |
| Robinson, Wendy | Department of Medical Genetics | Other basic medicine and life sciences; Medical Genetics; Early (prenatal) human development; Placenta; Epigenetics; DNA methylation; Sex differences; Mosaicism |
| Roland, Elke | Department of Pediatrics | Pediatric Neurology; Neurodevelopmental disorders; Developmental Neurology; Pediatric Neuroscience; Neurological diseases; Clinical Neurology; Neurological disorders |
| Roskelley, Calvin | Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences, School of Biomedical Engineering | Breast cancer, ovarian cancer |
| Rossi, Fabio | School of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Medical Genetics | Stem Cell Regenerative Medicine blood, Stem cells, regeneration, gene therapy, control of cell fate |
| Roth, Andrew | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Department of Computer Science | Bioinformatics; Cancer Evolution; Cancer omics data; computational statistics; Computational Biology; computational methods for studying clonal population structures and tumour evolution; Evolutionary cancer biology; genomics; Machine Learning; Methodological work in computational statistics; Molecular Oncology |
| Rothstein, Ralph | Department of Pediatrics | Pediatric Endocrinology |
| Russell, James | Critical Care Medicine | old world, Iron Age, Celtic, classical Greek, Roman and Byzantine art, archaeology, architecture, ancient Roman daily life and culture;Roman military organization early Christianity; magic in antiquity; Greek and Roman inscriptions and coins; Scottish and Irish archaeology; old world and classical architecture, archaeology and culture with emphasis on Western Europe and Middle East; Celtic (especially Ireland and Scotland); Greek and Roman, classical and Byzantine; Latin, Greek, Lallans and lowland Scots; Scottish literature; Robert Burns; Scottish poetry generally; ancient through early Islam, especially Turkey; Eastern Europe, New therapy for sepsis (severe infection), septic shock and acute lung injury, role of genetics of the inflammatory response in the critically ill |
| Ryan, Colm | Division of Respiratory Medicine | Respiratory Sleep Disorders; Investigation and treatment of obstructive sleep apnea |
| Ryerson, Christopher | Division of Respiratory Medicine | Interstitial lung disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema, dyspnea, pulmonary rehabilitation, symptom management, health care databases. |
| Ryu, Min Hyung | Division of Respiratory Medicine | COPD; air pollution; mitigatation of environmental and genetic risk factors for chronic respiratory diseases |
| Sadar, Marianne | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Prostate Cancer; Drug development; transcriptional regulation |
| Sadarangani, Manish | Department of Pediatrics | Immunology; Microbiology; Clinical sciences; Antimicrobial resistant bacteria; Bacterial Vaccines; Childhood infections; Epidemiology; Immune System; Vaccine Development; Vaccine immunity; Clinical trials and observational studies |
| Sadovnick, Adele | Department of Medical Genetics | clinical genetic, genetic epidemiological and molecular genetic research |
| Sadowski, Ivan | Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology | Gene regulation contributing to cancer and HIV, and yeast, regulation of HIV-I latency and replication in T cells |
| Sakakibara, Brodie | Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy | Clinical medicine; Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy; Gerontology; rehabilitation; Physical Activity; Physical Rehabilitation; Spinal cord injury; Stroke Rehabilitation; Chronic disease self-management and prevention; Telehealth in people with stroke and cardiovascular disease; Complex behavioural intervention development; Clinical trial methodologies; Participatory and patient-oriented research |
| Salh, Baljinder Singh | Division of Gastroenterology | Gastrointestinal Pathologies; Nutrition and Cancer; Inflammatory bowel disease; Colon cancer; Signal transduction |
| Samuel, Susan | Department of Pediatrics | improving care and outcomes of children with chronic health conditions, kidney disease, nephrotic syndrome |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Dr. Dong developed blood-based molecular biomarkers to predict pulmonary exacerbation events with high accuracy in individuals with cystic fibrosis. Findings from his study facilitate personalized medical monitoring and allow earlier diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary exacerbations in cystic fibrosis. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2022 | Dr. Lee explored the characteristics, strengths, weaknesses, barriers, and opportunities associated with the theory and practice of municipal rat management with a view towards providing recommendations for cities seeking to develop or improve their own rat management strategies. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2022 | Dr. Sharma characterized three new disorders in patients presenting with immune defects since birth. His research will improve the care and management of these patients, as well as that of future patients diagnosed with these disorders. This work also provides insight into the mechanisms of more commonly occurring immune regulatory diseases. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2022 | Dr. Koch used brain imaging techniques to study the movement disorder, Huntington disease, in mice. She identified altered motor behaviour that was associated with neural signaling in a brain region called the striatum. This research provides insight into the neurological changes in Huntington disease, that should one day help us develop a cure. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2022 | Dr. Zhang defined the mechanisms underlying the transcription, modification, and degradation of a critical molecule in autism. She discovered that impaired modification of the molecule contributes to autism pathogenesis. This research provides novel insights into potential targeted therapy for autism. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2022 | Viral myocarditis is the leading cause of sudden death in young children and youth. Dr. Zhao's study shed light on the mechanisms underlying how coxsackievirus induces viral myocarditis by both direct cardiac injury and perturbation of innate immune response, and thus provided potential therapeutic strategies against virus-induced heart diseases. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2022 | Dr. Hall's research synthesized health economics with learning health systems to support strategic management of care portfolios. Through the development and implementation of his 'Economic Learning Health System' framework, he assisted a health authority with the optimization of care delivery for seniors receiving home health services. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2022 | Dr. van Ballegooie examined how polyethylene glycol conjugated protein based nanoparticles could be synthesized using microfluidics for applications in pharmaceutics requiring IV administration. She also demonstrated potential use as a triggered release system for combinatorial therapy (radiation + chemotherapy) used in cancer treatment regimes. | Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Oncology (PhD) |
| 2022 | Dr. Decotret investigated various ways cancer cells spread throughout the body. She found a novel role for a widely expressed molecule called PTP alpha in breast cancer cell invasion and developed an advanced method for tracking the invasion of brain cancer cells into surrounding brain tissue. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2022 | Dr. Yen studied drug resistance mechanisms in chronic myeloid leukemia by identifying predictive microRNA biomarkers and exploring the role of the translation initiation complex. This research will help stratify drug-insensitive patients and develop alternative combination treatments to treat them. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |