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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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Dr. EL-Naggar studied the critical role of YB-I in childhood cancers. YB-1 is a protein that binds DNA and RNA molecules. She showed that YB-1 promotes cancer cell spread which is the main cause of death in cancer patients. Her findings demonstrate that targeting YB1 is a promising strategy for preventing the spread of cancers. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Tai studied the link between white blood cells and cardiovascular disease. He found that deletingf inflammatory proteins in white blood cells increases the risk of future heart attacks and stroke. This finding improves our understanding of how to use one's own immune system as a means to combat cardiovascular disease. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Chu studied the effect of inflammation on white blood cell behaviour in cardiovascular disease. He discovered that inflammatory conditions decrease the ability of white blood cells to remove cholesterol from the surroundings. This research furthers our understanding of how inflammation can affect the progression of cardiovascular disease. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Phillips examined brain blood flow regulation in humans with traumatic spinal cord injury. His studies showed that a specific pharmaceutical, which increases blood pressure, enhanced brain blood flow regulation in this population and led to marked clinical benefits. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Bond studied how the common condition of obesity leads to more rapid neuro-biological disease progression in people with bipolar disorder. His research suggests an explanation for the more severe psychiatric illness courses seen in obese patients, and opens new avenues for understanding disease progression in people with psychiatric illnesses. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr.Wong investigated the effects of spinal cord injury on the autonomic nervous system, which is involved in cardiovascular control. She examined these spinal cord pathways by measuring heart rate and blood pressure. She discovered these pathways may be damaged in addition to motor and sensory dysfunction, leading to abnormal cardiovascular control. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Bérubé compared the language and reading skills, in both English and French, of Anglophone and ESL students in French immersion programs. He found that by Grade 6, all students had developed equally strong skills. This confirms that French immersion programs are viable for all students in promoting bilingualism in the official languages in Canada. | Doctor of Philosophy in Audiology and Speech Sciences (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Cochrane studied genes involved in a form of childhood leukemia. He found that PCGF5, a member of a gene family known as the Polycomb Group, was switched on in leukemia. His research offers new insight into the way genes are regulated during development of the embryo, in the production of white blood cells, and in cancer. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Lee studied human brain tumours. In her pre-clinical investigations, she discovered that the depletion of a protein called polo-like kinase 1 not only killed the majority of the brain cancer cells tested, but also eliminated the notoriously chemo-resistant "brain cancer initiating cell", which may be one of the causes of disease recurrence. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Whitman identified several biases in how people judge hypotheses and found one bias was increased in delusional schizophrenia patients. She also developed new ways to analyze brain imaging data, using them to study brain networks involved in hypothesis judgment. This work will help us to understand the brain activity involved in delusional beliefs. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |