UBC graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are part of exciting discoveries and new research.

From breakthroughs in organ transplantation to alerting us to the risks of space junk, UBC research made headlines in 2025, capturing global attention and sparking important conversations. UBC News published a list of 15 highlights from 2025 - seven of these stories feature graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. 

Here we celebrate their research.

• Where do Canada’s fruits and vegetables come from? Former postdoctoral fellow Kushank Bajaj worked on this web tool Canada Food Flows, which shows that most fruits and many vegetables are imported—mainly from the U.S. and Mexico—revealing Canada’s trade dependencies and climate vulnerability.
• One in four chance per year that rocket junk will enter busy airspace. Doctoral candidate Ewan Wright was the lead author on this study, which revealed a 26-per-cent yearly chance that uncontrolled rocket debris crosses busy airspace, prompting calls for stronger global policies as launches rise.
• ADHD misinformation on TikTok is shaping young adults’ perceptions. Doctoral student Vasileia Karasavva worked on this analysis of top TikTok videos which found that fewer than half of ADHD claims matched clinical guidelines, fueling misconceptions, self-diagnosis risks and overestimated prevalence among young adults.
• New stir stick detects drink spiking in seconds. Master's student Samin Yousefi worked on this project which produced Spikeless, a discreet stir stick, detecting drink-spiking drugs within 30 seconds, offering an affordable, single-use solution.
• Researchers develop new way to match young cancer patients with the right drugs. A pan-Canadian team, which included postdoctoral fellow Georgina Barnabas and PhD student Tariq Bhat, grew young patients’ tumours in chicken eggs, analyzed proteins and identified personalized drugs fast enough to guide treatment.
• A digestive ‘treasure chest’ shows promise for targeted drug treatment in the gut. Doctoral student Maggie (Wei Jen) Ma worked with this team on GlycoCaging, a plant-based drug activated by gut bacteria.
• Study finds Indigenous-led hunting most effective for tackling deer overabundance on BC islands. Doctoral student Sofie McComb worked on this study around Indigenous-led hunting best practices. 

Learn more about graduate student research by browsing student profiles or reading an impact story.