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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Dr. Docking studied acute myeloid leukemia, a blood-based cancer with very poor outcomes. Using genome sequencing technology, he developed a test that can determine whether patients are likely to respond to therapy, and identified patients who may respond to existing cancer drugs, which has the potential to significantly improve patient outcomes. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Yuskiv investigated management practices and treatment outcomes of phenylketonuria, a rare, treatable genetic metabolic disorder. She identified needs for improvement in the areas of diagnosis, management practices, treatment outcomes, and parental quality of life. Her work will benefit families with phenylketonuria. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Wadsworth found that unstable blood flow in solid tumours provides tumour cells with resistance to radiation therapy. His findings include that certain anti-hypertension drugs can be re-purposed to alter tumour development, eliminate these therapy resistant cells, and improve effectiveness of radiation therapy. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Held studied the cardiovascular responses to exercising on an underwater treadmill. He developed criteria for exercise testing, thermoregulation, and maximal and submaximal exercise prescription. His findings will advance the use of these specialized aquatic therapy pools to improve outcomes in health, training, and physical rehabilitation. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Finlay studied the markers of sustained success in high performance sports organisations, proposing two conceptual models on how leaders managed processes of change management and performance management. The research informs high performance sports organisations, and the leaders working within them, in relation to best practices in these areas. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Kumar examined the genetic mechanisms involved in chemotherapy resistance in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer. His research improves our understanding on how treatment resistance occurs and allow for the development of counteractive therapeutic alternatives. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Mazinani studied the relationship between Alzheimer's disease and blood clotting. He found that proteins that cause Alzheimer's disease assist in blood clotting, and that these proteins can be modified by coagulation enzymes. His findings contribute to a new understanding of potential causes of Alzheimer's disease, as well as new therapies. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Caffrey applied light and electron microscopy to answer key questions in human health and disease across several size scales, from human tissue to single proteins. His research examines 3D distribution of mitochondria in tissues, the effect of novel therapeutics on cells and illuminates the role structural defects in protein play in disease. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Manesh worked using transgenic animal models of spinal cord injury. His research showed that spinal cord neurons can adapt in the absence of protective myelin sheaths and restore function to the damaged spinal cord. His research impacts therapies for spinal cord injury as well as other myelin disorders like multiple sclerosis. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Caveney showed how the final stages of bacterial cell wall biosynthesis can be modulated. These modulations are part of both natural bacterial life but additionally can play an important role in bacterial infection. This research paves the way for improved antibacterial therapeutics. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |