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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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Dr. Brown studied how sensory information from the environment can be used to inform movement. Her findings demonstrate that healthy aging and stroke change the neurophysiological processes underpinning this relationship. Her findings also suggest that interventions may be able to target this process to improve motor outcomes in these populations. | Doctor of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Sciences (PhD) |
| 2017 | Antibiotic use drives the global problem of antibiotic resistance. Dr. McKay studied physician practice patterns related to antibiotic use, and found wide variation in practice. Her research draws attention to the nature of interventions to improve the responsible use of antibiotics, with the goal of preserving their usefulness. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2017 | Dr. Dickman examined the serum of individuals with oral cancer to detect molecules that could be used in an early diagnosis test. He also found that similar molecules are secreted from cancer cells to alter the tissue around them to promote tumor growth. His work will have significant impact on oral cancer diagnosis and treatment. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2017 | Dr. Gao studied what causes retinal cells to die in age-related macular degeneration (AMD), an important eye disease. He found that a protein complex, called the inflammasome, is responsible for molecular interactions between inflammation and cell death pathways. His discoveries will aid in the development of new therapies to stop blindness in AMD. | Doctor of Philosophy in Cell and Developmental Biology (PhD) |
| 2017 | Dr. Wang studied the molecular mechanisms underlying selective neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Her work indicates two genes, SDC3 and FGFRL1, could be potential targets to alleviate neuronal death in these two disorders. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2017 | Dr. Mosavianpour demonstrated that social and experiential collaborative learning enhanced the quality of individual patient care and led to quality improvement in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. This work highlights the importance of continuous collaborative, sociocultural learning supported by scaffolding in our health care system. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2017 | Dr. Lussier studied the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on epigenetic mechanisms using basic and clinical models. In addition to identifying new effects of alcohol in the developing brain, he also found an epigenetic signature that could be used to screen children at risk for fetal alcohol spectrum disorder for early interventions. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2017 | Dr. Gobinath examined pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions in a postpartum depression model. She found that exercise and the drug, fluoxetine, functioned differently in mothers, and male offspring were more sensitive to drug exposure. This research emphasizes the importance of investigating postpartum interventions. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2017 | Dr. Kim studied the mechanisms of an emerging class of therapeutics used for the treatment of epilepsy. His research revealed critical molecular interactions between a drug named retigabine and potassium channel proteins in the brain. These novel findings will contribute to the development of more effective therapies in the future. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmacology (PhD) |
| 2017 | Dr. Osei assessed cell communication within the airways of asthmatic and COPD patients. His work showed the importance of Interleukin-1 alpha in the mediation of inflammation and fibrosis. This work increases our knowledge in chronic inflammation and remodelling that occurs in asthma and COPD, and provides avenues for new therapeutic research. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmacology (PhD) |