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.
| Name | Academic Unit(s) | Research Interests |
|---|---|---|
| Rothstein, Ralph | Department of Pediatrics | Pediatric Endocrinology |
| Rouhi, Arefeh | ||
| Russell, James | Critical Care Medicine | old world, Iron Age, Celtic, classical Greek, Roman and Byzantine art, archaeology, architecture, ancient Roman daily life and culture;Roman military organization early Christianity; magic in antiquity; Greek and Roman inscriptions and coins; Scottish and Irish archaeology; old world and classical architecture, archaeology and culture with emphasis on Western Europe and Middle East; Celtic (especially Ireland and Scotland); Greek and Roman, classical and Byzantine; Latin, Greek, Lallans and lowland Scots; Scottish literature; Robert Burns; Scottish poetry generally; ancient through early Islam, especially Turkey; Eastern Europe, New therapy for sepsis (severe infection), septic shock and acute lung injury, role of genetics of the inflammatory response in the critically ill |
| Ryan, Colm | Division of Respiratory Medicine | Respiratory Sleep Disorders; Investigation and treatment of obstructive sleep apnea |
| Ryerson, Christopher | Division of Respiratory Medicine | Interstitial lung disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema, dyspnea, pulmonary rehabilitation, symptom management, health care databases. |
| Sadar, Marianne | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Prostate Cancer; Drug development; transcriptional regulation |
| Sadarangani, Manish | Department of Pediatrics | Immunology; Microbiology; Clinical sciences; Bacteria; Bacterial Vaccines; Childhood infections; Epidemiology; Immune System; Vaccine Development; Vaccine immunity; Clinical trials and observational studies |
| Sadovnick, Adele | Department of Medical Genetics | clinical genetic, genetic epidemiological and molecular genetic research |
| Sadowski, Ivan | Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology | Gene regulation contributing to cancer and HIV, and yeast, regulation of HIV-I latency and replication in T cells |
| Sakakibara, Brodie | Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy | Clinical medicine; Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy; Gerontology; rehabilitation; Physical Activity; Physical Rehabilitation; Spinal cord injury; Stroke Rehabilitation; Chronic disease self-management and prevention; Telehealth in people with stroke and cardiovascular disease; Complex behavioural intervention development; Clinical trial methodologies; Participatory and patient-oriented research |
| Salh, Baljinder Singh | Division of Gastroenterology | Gastrointestinal Pathologies; Nutrition and Cancer; Inflammatory bowel disease; Colon cancer; Signal transduction |
| Sanatani, Shubhayan | Department of Pediatrics | Arrhythmia; Sudden death, ion channelopathies, supraventricular tachycardia, autonomic nervous system |
| Sandford, Andrew | Division of Respiratory Medicine | genetic basis of asthma and has extended his studies to include the genetics of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and peanut allergy as well as the genetic basis of pulmonary disease severity in cystic fibrosis; potential effects on gene function of genetic variants associated with these disease outcomes |
| Savage, Kerry | Division of Medical Oncology | Lymphoma, lymphoid |
| Sawatzky, Bonita | Department of Orthopaedics | Clinical medicine; Mobility; Outcome measures; biomechanics |
| Schaeffer, David | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Clinical oncology; Pathology (except oral pathology); Bioinformatics; cancer genetics; Cancer biology; Genomic rearrangements; genomics; Pancreas; Pathology; patient derived models |
| Schaffer, Paul | Department of Radiology | Positron Emission Tomography Imaging |
| Schechter, Martin | School of Population and Public Health | HIV/AIDS |
| Schmidt, Julia | Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy | Occupational therapy; Trauma / Injuries; cognition; Neurological diseases; Cognitive impairment; neuroscience; rehabilitation; Self-awareness; Self-identity; Traumatic Brain Injury |
| Schmidt, Robert | ||
| Schrader, Kasmintan | Department of Medical Genetics | Genomics & Bioinformatics, Clinical Genetics, Genetic Counselling and Ethics & Policy |
| Schrewe, Brett | Department of Pediatrics | |
| Schuetz, Christian | Department of Psychiatry | Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects |
| Schultz, Kirk | Department of Pediatrics | Pediatric Cancer Blood and Marrow Transplantation Transplantation immunology Graft-versus-Host Disease Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Aplastic Anemia Myelodysplastic Syndrome, Oncology, immune system, childhood leukemia, blood and marrow transplatation, tumour immunology |
| Schwarz, Stephan | Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics | Analgesia, Pain, Pharmacology, Pain management, Anesthesiology, cardiovascular, medical imaging, nerve, artery, valve |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Dr. Leese developed understanding of ethical issues experienced by people with arthritis when using wearable technology in their everyday self-management with a health professional. This research contributes new insight to help develop and implement physical activity programs involving wearable technology in ways that are ethically aware. | Doctor of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Sciences (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Millington studied sex differences in nutrient-dependent growth using flies as a model. He found that sex-biased changes to insulin signaling in response to nutrients controls male-female differences in growth. As insulin is highly conserved, these results inform our understanding of the sex-biased incidence of metabolic diseases in humans. | Doctor of Philosophy in Cell and Developmental Biology (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Frew studied a new approach for treating a genetic form of frontotemporal dementia. He created a unique repository of dementia patient-derived stem cell lines that will contribute to the study of neurodegeneration for years to come. His research provides support for continued development and preclinical testing of next generation therapeutics. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Refaeli showed that the podocalyxin gene is crucial for developing and maintaining the filtration barrier in the kidney. His dissertation advanced the hypothesis that gene-dosage is key to regulating the resilience of renal filtration cells to environmental stress, and contributed novel tools to study renal disease and test novel therapies. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Tortora focused on PPAR-gamma, a protein involved in the biology of bladder cancer. Through gene editing technology, Dr. Tortora identified molecules regulating PPAR-gamma expression and clarified its effects in tumor development, thus potentially opening new possibilities for bladder cancer treatment. | Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Oncology (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Prescott studied how people with disabilities navigate their communities. He found barriers in the pedestrian environment that negatively affected their ability to get around, which made it challenging to reach destinations. His research identifies policy and practice changes needed to improve their access to outdoor urban spaces. | Doctor of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Sciences (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. D'Costa demonstrated that some kidney cancer patients can be treated with a drug used in brain tumor therapy for improved response. She also developed a way to group patients and guide the practice of personalized medicine in clinics. Her research may help improve survival and therapy outcomes in kidney cancer patients. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Coulombe studied endothelial cell signaling in the development of the lung and blood system. His research demonstrated the participation of various cell types and identified pivotal factors in the formation of these organs. His work furthers our understanding of developmental processes, providing insights for therapies and regenerative medicine. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Lu studied the genetic and molecular causes underlying a group of immune disorders called the CBM-opathies. His research improves our understanding of these diseases and informs the diagnosis and treatment of future related patients. Throughout his PhD, he helped genetically diagnose 11 children, which transformed their management and care. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Wong studied the molecular interactions involved in the function of CIC, a gene important for suppressing cancer development and progression. He discovered a mechanism that cancers utilize to destabilize CIC, findings of which have implications for drug development and improving treatment options for patients. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |