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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Dr. Berndt showed how the specialized functions of brain neurons are controlled by signals from targets that the neurons contact. He defined how these signals are interpreted at regulatory regions of DNA. His work contributes to our understanding of brain development, and describes processes that are disrupted in degenerative neurological diseases. | Doctor of Philosophy in Cell and Developmental Biology (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Triscott's doctoral studies focused on the development of new methods to improve the treatment of high-grade brain tumors. Her work resulted in the identification of molecular targets that drive tumor formation. This work highlights the potential for repurposing clinically available drugs to prevent the growth of aggressive brain tumors. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Petersen examined psycho-social, clinical, and risk profiles of severely mentally ill individuals who were relocated as a result of the closure of BC's Riverview Hospital. Longitudinal data demonstrated positive changes in quality of life and independent living skills. In addition, there was no evidence that individuals in this study became homeless. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Yao completed her doctoral program in Experimental Medicine. She studied how cellular stress signals modulate the crosstalk between innate and adaptive immune responses. These comprehensive studies showed for the first time that a subtype of CD4 regulatory cells, named Tr1 cells can inhibit responses to cellular stress signals. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dopamine is a chemical in the human brain that is important for decision making. Dr. Pitman investigated how dopamine is regulated and what impact obesity has. She found that the mechanisms responsible for reducing dopamine release were not affected by obesity. Her work contributes to understanding how obesity can alter the decisions that we make. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmacology (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Zhang studied the function of blood cells, called macrophage, in the context of atherosclerosis, the underlying cause of heart attacks. When macrophages had low activity of the eEF2K enzyme, there was less disease development. His results could one day lead to development of new drugs to block this enzyme, which could reduce heart attacks. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Ti studied the healthcare of illicit drug users in hospital settings. She found that hospitals can act as an environment that increases the risk of negative health outcomes among this population. Her research has important public health implications as it points to the need for harm reduction programs to be integrated in hospitals. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. McGovern's research used DNA sequencing to study and predict changes in HIV caused by a new anti-HIV drug. Her work focused on the development of a clinical test to predict whether this drug should be prescribed or not, based on the genetics of a patient's HIV. This test is now part of clinical guidelines and in use around the world. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Ardekani has studied the role of the cancer inducing gene, BRAF, in the final outcome of melanoma patients. He discovered novel variants of the BRAF gene that react against the mutant version and confer a better outcome. Dr. Ardekani's findings could be utilized to design more effective treatments for melanoma patients. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2015 | How does the brain work? Dr. Spacek used silicon micro-electrodes to simultaneously record the electrical activity of many brain cells in the visual cortex. Under specific conditions, brain cell activity was highly consistent in response to repeated presentation of a movie stimulus, showing that the brain can be more reliable than previously thought. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |