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. Khattra researched the application of next generation DNA sequencing, computational modeling, and single-cell analysis protocols to elucidate breast and ovarian tumour heterogeneity and clonal evolution. He advanced the cause of improved classification and combinatorial treatment of diverse subpopulations of cells in epithelial tumours. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Yang investigated new treatments for advanced prostate cancer. He studied novel compounds for their effectiveness in overcoming the molecular mechanisms that can cause cancer progression, and resistance to current treatments. He showed that a drug candidate developed by his research group may cure a lethal and incurable form of prostate cancer. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Vinall demonstrated that greater exposure to neo-natal pain was related to slower growth, altered brain development and poorer cognitive and behavioural outcomes in children born very pre-term. Positive parent interactions helped to ameliorate the effect of pain on behaviour. This work contributes to understanding the development of pre-term infants. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Brumme used new DNA sequencing methods to improve molecular diagnostics for treating HIV and Hepatitis C virus. He also used these methods to study how HIV evolves to evade drug and immune selection pressures. Tests and tools developed as part of his research have been translated into clinical practice in British Columbia and around the world. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Payne developed a simple model for managing high-risk pregnancies in Africa and South Asia. Using mobile phones, community health workers in under-resourced countries can safely manage pregnancies complicated by high blood pressure. This mobile application has been used to manage thousands of pregnancies with demonstrated health improvements. | Doctor of Philosophy in Reproductive and Developmental Sciences (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Pollock examined how people control their balance after suffering a stroke. She found motor control deficits and heightened anxiety affect postural responses post-stroke. Her findings suggest there are positive and negative compensations in the way the body responds to loss of balance. Dr. Pollock aims to improve rehabilitation following a stroke. | Doctor of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Sciences (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Duncan completed her doctoral program in the field of Experimental Medicine. She studied signalling pathways in innate immune cells exposed to bacterial products. Her research revealed a novel pathway for pathogen recognition and has implications for human health and disease, most particularly the development of sepsis and septic shock. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Ma conducted her research on the pathology of breast cancer at BC Cancer Research Centre. She studied the importance of the protein B55-alpha in preventing the development of breast cancer and the outcomes of its mutations. Her research contributed to the knowledge on cancer preventing genes and provided data for future cancer drug development. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Lee studied HIV drug resistance. She evaluated current clinical laboratory tests to see whether they could be applied to African patients who are infected with different HIV strains, compared with North American patients. She concluded these tests remain useful, although there are some limitations of which physicians should be aware. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Best studied how adults living in the community use their wheelchairs. She contributed to our understanding of the challenges of using a wheelchair, and why improved wheelchair skills and confidence are important for achieving successful wheelchair use. Her findings support a new rehabilitative approach that may benefit adult wheelchair users. | Doctor of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Sciences (PhD) |