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Overview
The Genome Science and Technology graduate program is a trans-disciplinary program that combines genomic research with leading-edge technology development in genome sciences for students pursing an M.Sc. or Ph.D. This program is intended to accommodate the diverse background of students and the broad nature of genomic research in human, animal, plant, microbes, and viruses.
Program Objectives
- Generate a culture of innovation and discovery by exposing trainees at all levels to important and timely scientific problems being addressed using emerging technologies.
- Enable researchers to effectively work at the nexus of biology, engineering, and physical sciences by providing a unified training program including joint seminars, cross-disciplinary rotations, and hands-on training in new technology and methodology.
- Provide enriching professional development programs to assist the transition of trainees into both the academic and industrial workforces.
- Foster close interactions, collaborations, and intellectual exchange with other laboratories nationally and internationally.
Our goal is to be among the top 10 graduate programs in genome sciences & technology in North America.
What makes the program unique?
The Ph.D. program in Genome Science and Technology (GSAT) incorporates an innovative rotation program that allows students to access multiple highly skilled research faculty during their graduate program. These rotation opportunities allow student to learn the latest advances in genomic sciences and high through-put technologies. Rotations also allow valuable relationships to form for future collaborative opportunities.
The GSAT program has collaborative associations with both the Centre for High Through-put Technology and the Michael Smith Laboratories. Faculty members associated with the program have diverse backgrounds in genomics and proteomics, bio-engineering, systems biology, chemical biology,device and instrumentation development, and engineering.
Quick Facts
Program Enquiries
Contact the program
Admission Information & Requirements
Program Instructions
Students who are selected for the GSAT rotation scholarship will not need to secure a supervisor before they are enrolled in the program. All other students must secure a supervisor before they can be admitted into the program. As well, they must meet the minimum admission requirements set out by Graduate and Post-doctoral Studies at UBC.
1) Check Eligibility
Minimum Academic Requirements
The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies establishes the minimum admission requirements common to all applicants, usually a minimum overall average in the B+ range (76% at UBC). The graduate program that you are applying to may have additional requirements. Please review the specific requirements for applicants with credentials from institutions in:
Each program may set higher academic minimum requirements. Please review the program website carefully to understand the program requirements. Meeting the minimum requirements does not guarantee admission as it is a competitive process.
English Language Test
Applicants from a university outside Canada in which English is not the primary language of instruction must provide results of an English language proficiency examination as part of their application. Tests must have been taken within the last 24 months at the time of submission of your application.
Minimum requirements for the two most common English language proficiency tests to apply to this program are listed below:
TOEFL: Test of English as a Foreign Language - internet-based
Overall score requirement: 100
Reading
22
Writing
21
Speaking
21
Listening
22
IELTS: International English Language Testing System
Overall score requirement: 7.0
Reading
6.0
Writing
6.0
Speaking
6.0
Listening
6.0
Other Test Scores
Some programs require additional test scores such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or the Graduate Management Test (GMAT). The requirements for this program are:
The GRE is not required.
Prior degree, course and other requirements
Prior Degree Requirements
Applicants must have a Life-Sciences degree, with significant experience in a quantitative science OR a Computer Science/Math/Engineering/Physics degree with significant experience in Life Sciences. Although work experience may be taken into consideration if the degree is outside these areas.
Document Requirements
CV, Official transcripts, three letters of reference, Official English exam scores (if required)
2) Meet Deadlines
September 2025 Intake
Application Open Date
31 March 2024Canadian Applicants
International Applicants
3) Prepare Application
Transcripts
All applicants have to submit transcripts from all past post-secondary study. Document submission requirements depend on whether your institution of study is within Canada or outside of Canada.
Letters of Reference
A minimum of three references are required for application to graduate programs at UBC. References should be requested from individuals who are prepared to provide a report on your academic ability and qualifications.
Statement of Interest
Many programs require a statement of interest, sometimes called a "statement of intent", "description of research interests" or something similar.
Supervision
Students in research-based programs usually require a faculty member to function as their thesis supervisor. Please follow the instructions provided by each program whether applicants should contact faculty members.
Instructions regarding thesis supervisor contact for Doctor of Philosophy in Genome Science and Technology (PhD)
Citizenship Verification
Permanent Residents of Canada must provide a clear photocopy of both sides of the Permanent Resident card.
4) Apply Online
All applicants must complete an online application form and pay the application fee to be considered for admission to UBC.
Research Information
Research Focus
Systems biology, Genomics and proteomics, Chemical biology, Bioengineering, Device and instrumentation development, Computational biology
Program Components
Students who have been selected for the GSAT rotation scholarship will have the opportunity to rotate through three GSAT-Faculty laboratories before they make the final decision on their thesis supervisor.
Research Facilities
GSAT faculty are spread throughout the UBC campus, with most occupying the Michael Smith Laboratories building. A small number of GSAT faculty may reside off-campus at the BC Cancer Research Centre or hospital research labs and Institutions.
Tuition & Financial Support
Tuition
| Fees | Canadian Citizen / Permanent Resident / Refugee / Diplomat | International |
|---|---|---|
| Application Fee | $116.25 | $168.25 |
| Tuition * | ||
| Installments per year | 3 | 3 |
| Tuition per installment | $1,838.57 | $3,230.06 |
| Tuition per year (plus annual increase, usually 2%-5%) | $5,515.71 | $9,690.18 |
| Int. Tuition Award (ITA) per year (if eligible) | $3,200.00 (-) | |
| Other Fees and Costs | ||
| Student Fees (yearly) | $1,116.60 (approx.) | |
| Costs of living | Estimate your costs of living with our interactive tool in order to start developing a financial plan for your graduate studies. | |
All fees for the year are subject to adjustment and UBC reserves the right to change any fees without notice at any time, including tuition and student fees. Tuition fees are reviewed annually by the UBC Board of Governors. In recent years, tuition increases have been 2% for continuing domestic students and between 2% and 5% for continuing international students. New students may see higher increases in tuition. Admitted students who defer their admission are subject to the potentially higher tuition fees for incoming students effective at the later program start date. In case of a discrepancy between this webpage and the UBC Calendar, the UBC Calendar entry will be held to be correct.
Financial Support
Applicants to UBC have access to a variety of funding options, including merit-based (i.e. based on your academic performance) and need-based (i.e. based on your financial situation) opportunities.
Program Funding Packages
All students accepted by a faculty member and enrolled in the program will be paid a minimum stipend of $24,300/year. Students who have been selected for the GSAT rotation scholarships will also have their tuition paid for the first two years of study.
Average Funding
- 8 students received Teaching Assistantships. Average TA funding based on 8 students was $10,737.
- 22 students received Research Assistantships. Average RA funding based on 22 students was $19,516.
- 2 students received Academic Assistantships. Average AA funding based on 2 students was $2,135.
- 25 students received internal awards. Average internal award funding based on 25 students was $12,019.
- 3 students received external awards. Average external award funding based on 3 students was $25,556.
Review methodology
Scholarships & awards (merit-based funding)
All applicants are encouraged to review the awards listing to identify potential opportunities to fund their graduate education. The database lists merit-based scholarships and awards and allows for filtering by various criteria, such as domestic vs. international or degree level.
Graduate Research Assistantships (GRA)
Many professors are able to provide Research Assistantships (GRA) from their research grants to support full-time graduate students studying under their supervision. The duties constitute part of the student's graduate degree requirements. A Graduate Research Assistantship is considered a form of fellowship for a period of graduate study and is therefore not covered by a collective agreement. Stipends vary widely, and are dependent on the field of study and the type of research grant from which the assistantship is being funded.
Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTA)
Graduate programs may have Teaching Assistantships available for registered full-time graduate students. Full teaching assistantships involve 12 hours work per week in preparation, lecturing, or laboratory instruction although many graduate programs offer partial TA appointments at less than 12 hours per week. Teaching assistantship rates are set by collective bargaining between the University and the Teaching Assistants' Union.
Graduate Academic Assistantships (GAA)
Academic Assistantships are employment opportunities to perform work that is relevant to the university or to an individual faculty member, but not to support the student’s graduate research and thesis. Wages are considered regular earnings and when paid monthly, include vacation pay.
Financial aid (need-based funding)
Canadian and US applicants may qualify for governmental loans to finance their studies. Please review eligibility and types of loans.
All students may be able to access private sector or bank loans.
Foreign government scholarships
Many foreign governments provide support to their citizens in pursuing education abroad. International applicants should check the various governmental resources in their home country, such as the Department of Education, for available scholarships.
Working while studying
The possibility to pursue work to supplement income may depend on the demands the program has on students. It should be carefully weighed if work leads to prolonged program durations or whether work placements can be meaningfully embedded into a program.
International students enrolled as full-time students with a valid study permit can work on campus for unlimited hours and work off-campus for no more than 20 hours a week.
A good starting point to explore student jobs is the UBC Work Learn program or a Co-Op placement.
Tax credits and RRSP withdrawals
Students with taxable income in Canada may be able to claim federal or provincial tax credits.
Canadian residents with RRSP accounts may be able to use the Lifelong Learning Plan (LLP) which allows students to withdraw amounts from their registered retirement savings plan (RRSPs) to finance full-time training or education for themselves or their partner.
Please review Filing taxes in Canada on the student services website for more information.
Cost Estimator
Applicants have access to the cost estimator to develop a financial plan that takes into account various income sources and expenses.
Career Outcomes
Enrolment, Duration & Other Stats
These statistics show data for the Doctor of Philosophy in Genome Science and Technology (PhD). Data are separated for each degree program combination. You may view data for other degree options in the respective program profile.
ENROLMENT DATA
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Applications | 11 | 10 | 11 | 17 | 16 |
| Offers | 2 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| New Registrations | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Total Enrolment | 37 | 43 | 39 | 40 | 38 |
Completion Rates & Times
Disclaimer
Upcoming Doctoral Exams
Tuesday, 10 December 2024 - 9:00am - 1410, Life Sciences Institute, 2350 Health Sciences Mall
Research Supervisors
Supervision
Students in research-based programs usually require a faculty member to function as their thesis supervisor. Please follow the instructions provided by each program whether applicants should contact faculty members.
Instructions regarding thesis supervisor contact for Doctor of Philosophy in Genome Science and Technology (PhD)
Advice and insights from UBC Faculty on reaching out to supervisors
These videos contain some general advice from faculty across UBC on finding and reaching out to a supervisor. They are not program specific.
This list shows faculty members with full supervisory privileges who are affiliated with this program. It is not a comprehensive list of all potential supervisors as faculty from other programs or faculty members without full supervisory privileges can request approvals to supervise graduate students in this program.
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Mayor, Thibault (Biochemistry; Genomics; Aging; Cell Biology; Neurodegenerative diseases; Proteasome; Protein Degradation; Protein Folding; Proteomics; Proteostasis; Ubiquitin; Yeast Genetics)
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Measday, Vivien (Chromosome segregation in the budding yeast using molecular biology and genomic tools)
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Morin, Gregg (Basic medicine and life sciences; Proteomics; mass spectrometry; RNA processing; Ribonucleoproteins; Splicing; Cancer; RNA sequencing)
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Nislow, Corey (genomics and develops biotechnology tools to address both fundamental and applied biological questions; Parallel genome-wide chemical genomic screens; High throughput cell-based screens; Next Generation Sequencing)
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Overall, Christopher Mark (Blood research, antiviral immunity)
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Pavlidis, Paul (Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects; Engineering and technology; genomics; Bioinformatics; cellular and molecular neuroscience; Genetics; disorders of the nervous system; single-cell genomics; Computational Biology; Gene regulation)
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Perrin, David (Bioorganic Chemistry, Combinatorial Chemistry Enzyme Mimics Antisense Therapies, Radiopharmaceuticals)
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Piret, James (Biomedical engineering, regenerative medicine Cell-based therapies have the potential to provide improved treatments for major diseases such as cancer and diabetes)
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Plotkin, Steven (Biophysics theory and computation )
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Rieseberg, Loren (Bioinformatics; Genomics; Plant biology; adaptation; crops; invasive plants; plant evolutionary biology; speciation; weeds)
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Robinson, Wendy (Other basic medicine and life sciences; Medical Genetics; Early (prenatal) human development; Placenta; Epigenetics; DNA methylation; Sex differences; Mosaicism)
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Ross, Colin (Care; Genomics; Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects; Pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences (except clinical aspects); Biomedical Technologies; Drug Metabolism; Gene Therapy; Gene-based therapeutics; Pharmacogenomics; Precision Medicine; transgenic models)
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Rossi, Fabio (Stem Cell Regenerative Medicine blood, Stem cells, regeneration, gene therapy, control of cell fate)
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Ryan, Katherine (drug molecules in use today are organic compounds isolated from organisms such as bacteria, plants, and fungi; understand how natural products are made.)
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Schiebinger, Geoffrey (Genomics; Mathematics and statistics; Applied & Theoretical Statistics; Computational Genomics; data science; Genetics; Genome Sciences; Machine Learning; Measurement technologies; Models Inference and Algorithms; Single-cell RNA sequencing; Theory of Statistics)
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Shakiba, Nika (Medical and biomedical engineering; Bioengineering; Cell competition; Cell engineering; Stem Cells; Synthetic biology)
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Singh, Amritpal (Other basic medicine and life sciences; single cell multiomics; single cell spatial multiomics; data integration; Machine Learning; Biomarkers; heart and lung disease; High dimensional data analysis; Bioinformatics)
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Steif, Adi (Bioinformatics; Algorithms and computational genomics; Genomics; Cancer genetics; Mechanisms of carcinogenesis; Cancer progression and metastasis; Statistical methods for high throughput data; High dimensional data analysis; Computational Biology; Machine Learning; Cancer Genomics; Single cell sequencing; Tumour evolution; Genomic technology development)
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Teves, Sheila (Biochemistry; Genomics; Epigenetics; Genetics; Genome Science; Molecular Epigenetics (MEG); molecular biology; Transcriptional memory and cellular identity in mouse embryonic stem cells)
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Todesco, Marco (Plant biology; Quantitative genetics (including disease and trait mapping genetics); Biological adaptation; Developmental genetics (including sex determination); Genomics; Population, ecological and evolutionary genetics; Paleogenomics; Genetics engineering; Plant-animal interactions; Genetic and molecular basis of adaptation; Plant genomics; Chromosomal structural variation; Crop improvement and bioengineering; Wild sunflowers ecology and evolution; Cannabis diversity and domestication)
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Tokuriki, Nobuhiko (Experimental evolution of proteins and molecular networks.)
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Tropini, Carolina (Immunology; Medical and biomedical engineering; Microbiology; Bacteria; Bacteriophages; Bioengineering; Bioinformatics; Biological and Biochemical Mechanisms; Biophysics; Gut microbiota; Inflammatory bowel disease)
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Underhill, Michael (Musculoskeletal diseases, transcription factors, growth, cytokines, retinoid signalling pathway in chondrogenesis, osteogenesis, phenotype)
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Vallance, Bruce (Enteric bacterial pathogens, innate immunity, instestinal inflammation, host defense, inflammatory bowel disease, immunity in health and disease)
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Wasserman, Wyeth (Medical, health and life sciences; Medical and biomedical engineering; Creation of computational methods for the analysis of genome sequences (bioinformatics); Study of cis-regulatory elements controlling gene transcription; Applied analyses of genome sequences (genomics); Indigenous genomics)
Pages
Doctoral Citations
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2021 | Dr. Nguyen investigated the characteristics of bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells, which are believed to play a significant role in maintaining and regulating blood stem cells. Deletion of the Hic1 gene was found to expand these cells and further increase the number of blood stem cells, findings that offer great promise to stem cell therapy. |
| 2020 | Dr. Booth showed how the molecules that give cannabis its psychoactive properties and unique aromas are produced in the flowers of the plant. Her research aims to explain why cannabis types differ in their aromas. Her results expand our knowledge of metabolism in cannabis, a plant of growing economic importance, and the properties of its products. |
| 2020 | Dr. Ye used the nematode worm to study how living organisms faithfully maintain and pass down genetic information encoded in their DNA. His study characterized genes and therapeutics that affect this process and provided insights that can shed light on future development of anticancer therapy. |
| 2020 | Dr. Wong studied membrane contact sites, locations in cells where membranes come together to share material and information. He discovered that a protein holding two membranes together also brings in other proteins that shuttle lipids between the two membranes. These studies provide fundamental insight into how cells use contact sites to survive. |
| 2020 | Dr. Crowley investigated the role of the intestinal mucosal inflammasome in restricting the early infection of the pathogen Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. Her research uncovers the dual role that epithelial cells play as both active defenders and coordinators of the immune response. |
| 2019 | Dr. Chan showed that the supplementation of an enzyme, coagulation factor XIIIa, and its synthetic substrates can improve the adhesiveness of blood clots to wounds. This study assists us in developing new therapies for treating traumatic bleeding. |
| 2019 | Dr. Lee examined and developed human-computer interactive approaches, where clinical experts and computers collaboratively analyze genomic data for rare genetic disease diagnoses. This research will contribute to future genome analysis methods that empower experts to expedite critical diagnoses. |
| 2019 | Dr. McAfee studied how honey bees fight off diseases and parasites by selectively removing sick brood from their colonies. She discovered odorants that interact with receptors in the antennae to stimulate this behaviour. Her results improve our understanding of bee behaviour and validate existing methods of selectively breeding disease-resistant stock. |
| 2019 | Dr. Sharma pioneered a method to examine the landscape of protein targets that can be recognized by a specialized class of immune cells called T cells. This method enables us to explore how the immune system successfully protects the body from possible threats and use this knowledge to develop new immune-based therapies for a wide array of diseases. |
| 2019 | Dr. Kuatsjah's work describes the characterization of three different enzymes that microorganisms use to degrade lignin. This work provides insights into how microorganisms contribute to the global carbon cycle and how Nature uses metals in enzymes. It also facilitates the development of tools to transform plant biomass into commodity chemicals. |
Pages
Sample Thesis Submissions
Further Information
Specialization
Genome Science and Technology combines training in genomics, with intensive training in new leading-edge genome science technologies, such as high-throughput techniques that acquire information from DNA sequence (genomics), protein expression and interactions (proteomics), and gene expression patterns (transcriptomics) to exploit information for a better understanding of biology.
Research Areas
- systems biology
- genomics and proteomics
- chemical biology
- bioengineering
- device and instrumentation development
- computational biology
Program Website
Faculty Overview
Academic Unit
Program Identifier
Classification
September 2025 Intake
Program Enquiries
Contact the program
Departments/Programs may update graduate degree program details through the Faculty & Staff portal. To update contact details for application inquiries, please use this form.
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