Applicants to master’s and doctoral degrees are not affected by the recently announced cap on study permits. Review more details
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Dr. Laver studied stem cell treatments for retinal degenerative diseases. He developed a cell-based therapeutic approach for regenerating co-dependent layers of the retina. His work will have significant impact on treatment for patients that suffer from advanced retinal degeneration. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2017 | Dr. Enfield developed new methods to identify cancer genes. She discovered a set of genes that enable lung tumours to become aggressive. Her research has led to the identification of new drug targets for stopping tumour growth and metastasis. | Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Oncology (PhD) |
| 2017 | Dr. Kay revealed the frequency of the Huntington disease mutation in our population and described new genetic variations in the surrounding gene. He showed that sets of variations, called haplotypes, are associated with the Huntington disease mutation around the world, offering therapeutic targets for silencing the gene in the majority of patients. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2017 | Dr. Metzak examined the changes in brain structure and function in schizophrenia patients while performing an attentional biasing task. He found that patients exhibited inefficient patterns of activity as task difficulty increased. This work contributes to our understanding of disease related brain changes in schizophrenia. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2017 | Dr. Pollard investigated the role of a shared approach to decision making within the context of asthma treatment. The results of her work support the use of individualized care plans for asthma patients as well as the involvement of a multidisciplinary team throughout the treatment decision-making process. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2017 | Dr. Cui investigated the mechanisms underlying the progression of aortic aneurysm in Marfan syndrome - a genetic disorder of the connective tissue. He developed novel analyses of elastin that could lead to an early diagnostic method of the disease. His ultrasound studies strongly support potential use of doxycycline for prevention of Marfan-linked aneurysm. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmacology (PhD) |
| 2017 | Using DNA sequencing-based strategies, Dr. Chen showed that histone phosphorylation was far more prevalent than previously thought in mammalian cells. These experiments are consistent with a role for this conserved epigenetic mark in bookmarking regions of the genome for gene expression and replication. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2017 | The human ether-à-go-go gene voltage-gated potassium channel, or hERG, plays a key role in the electrical activity of the heart. Dr. Macdonald investigated the structural bases for its abnormal gating and its propensity to off-target drug block. His work contributes to our understanding of voltage-gated potassium channel structure-function. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmacology (PhD) |
| 2017 | Dr. Wadden studied an individual's ability to re-learn motor skills following a stroke. She discovered the importance of the health of brain connections to determine an individual's capacity for motor learning post-stroke. This knowledge will encourage the delivery of individualized motor rehabilitation interventions to improve the effectiveness of treatments on motor recovery in people with stroke. | Doctor of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Sciences (PhD) |
| 2017 | Cancer cells use various mechanisms to resist treatment; one of them is called "autophagy", or "self-eating". Dr. Bortnik studied autophagy in breast cancer and showed that targeting this pathway in specific disease subtypes can sensitize cancer cells to therapy. Her research advances our understanding of the biology and treatment of breast cancer. | Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Oncology (PhD) |