
Arun Kumar
Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD)
Investigating the role of SUMOylation in nuclear protein quality control
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 |
---|---|---|
Abu-Laban, Riyad | Department of Emergency Medicine | Emergency medicine, epidemiology, research education |
Accili, Eric | Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences | molecular mechanisms responsible for cellular pacemaking behavior |
Afshar, Kourosh | Department of Urologic Sciences | Genital reconstruction and pediatric renal transplant |
Afshari, Reza | Environmental and occupational health and safety; Critical care medicine and emergency medicine; Epidemiology (except nutritional and veterinary epidemiology); Epidemiology,; Toxicology,; Pharmacology,; Environment; Risk assessment | |
Alageel, Mohammed | , | |
Allan, Douglas | Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences | Nervous system |
Allard, Michael | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Control of energy metabolism in normal and pathologic hearts; Physiologic and Pathologic Cardiac hypertrophy; Contribution of Metabolism to myocardial dysfunction after ischemia and reperfusion, especially in the setting of cardiac hypertrophy; Cardiovascular Pathology |
Ambasta, Anshula | Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics | Reduction of low-value services in health systems |
Anglesio, Michael | Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology | Obstetrics and gynecology; Premalignant disease (precursors); Cancer molecular targets; Cancer of the Reproductive System; Host-Tumour Interaction; Endometriosis; Cancer Diagnosis and Detection; animal models of endometriosis and cancer; Cancer prevention; early detection biomarkers; endometriosis associated cancers; gene-expression and transcriptomics; genomics; Immunology; microenvironment; ovarian cancer etiology |
Anis, Aslam | School of Population and Public Health | cost effectiveness of AIDS treatments; drug assessments – pharmacoeconomics; health care economics; health regulations, Health economics, rhematoid arthritis, biologic therapies |
Ansermino, John Mark | Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics | Basic medicine and life sciences; Global Health and Emerging Diseases; Health information systems; Biomedical Technologies; Technological Innovations; Artificial Intellegence; Automation in healthcare; Global Health; Mobile Health; Outcome prediction; Physiological Monitoring; Precision Health; Sepsis in children |
Aparicio, Samuel | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Breast cancer, genome sequencing |
Arbour, Laura | Department of Medical Genetics | northern and aboriginal health issues as they pertain to genetics |
Ashe, Maureen | Department of Family Practice | Mobile health (mHealth); Knowledge translation and implementation science in health; Patient and citizen engagement research; Physical therapy |
Austin, Jehannine | Department of Psychiatry, Department of Medical Genetics | Genetics, genomics, genetic counseling, psychiatric illness, mental illness, mental health, psychiatry, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, postpartum depression, perinatal mental health, Mood & Anxiety Disorders, Schizophrenia |
Av-Gay, Yossef | Division of Infectious Diseases | Tuberculosis |
Avina, Antonio | Division of Rheumatology | Systemic Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases (SARDs); Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE); Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA); Long term effectiveness; Multivariate analyses; Outcomes assessment; Pharmaco-epidemiology |
Ayas, Najib | Critical Care Medicine | Public health and afety consequences of sleep apnea and sleep deprivation |
Backman, Catherine | Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy | Occupational therapy; Rehabilitation medicine; activity disruption; arthritis; Arthritis / Osteo-Arthritis; chronic illness; health & well-being; Lifestyle Determinants and Health; occupational balance; rehabilitation; social role participation |
Baerg Hall, Elisabeth Anne | , | |
Balevi, Ben | Dentistry and oral health, n.e.c.; EBM | |
Bally, Marcel Bertran | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Pancreas centre |
Bamji, Shernaz | Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences, School of Biomedical Engineering | Medical and biomedical engineering; Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects; neurodevelopmental disease; primary neuronal cultures; synapse biology; transgenic mouse models |
Bansback, Nick | School of Population and Public Health | inform policies and practices in health through the application of |
Barbic, Skye | Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy | Occupational therapy; Rehabilitation medicine; assessment; community integration; health and well-being; Implementation Science; Individual Placement Support; measurement; Mental Health and Society; mental health; metrology; Patient Engagement; Rasch Measurement Theory; recovery; Supported Employment; youth |
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 |
---|---|---|
2022 | Dr. Scheu studied how proteins, namely ETS family transcription factors, bind their DNA targets within our cells and thereby turn genes on or off. He identified a molecular mechanism by which some family members regulate a common set of genes. He also showed how the motions of these ETS factors influence their DNA-binding specificity. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Doering discovered a new pathway by which cells can respond to and survive low oxygen stress using the model organism C. elegans. This work will be important for future development of drugs and therapies in diseases where cells are frequently exposed to low oxygen, such as cancer and diabetes. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Zeitouny assessed key dimensions in access to medicines in Canada and globally. Her research examined primary non-adherence in primary care. It uncovered changes in drug use and costs in British Columbia and investigated global vaccine availability during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her findings contributed to constructive health systems research. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Ferris examined patterns of brain damage in aging and after stroke using a magnetic resonance imaging technique called diffusion tensor imaging. Her work advances the development of novel MRI-based tools to measure brain damage and predict behavioural impairments after brain injury. | Doctor of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Sciences (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Simpson investigated the epidemiology, measurement, and recovery of arm and hand use following a stroke. This research increases our knowledge of this unique aspect of stroke recovery and will inform future stroke rehabilitation treatments. | Doctor of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Sciences (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Wong examined mechanisms that underlie cell fate determination during normal T-cell development. She identified an epigenetic factor critical for maintaining appropriate lineage development. Her research furthers our understanding of normal T-cell differentiation and how aberrations throughout development can result in leukemia. | Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Oncology (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Nanditha examined the epidemiology of aging with HIV in British Columbia. She demonstrated the disproportionate burden of chronic diseases experienced by people living with HIV and proposed reproducible methodological approaches that improve the reliability of chronic disease frequencies measured using large administrative health datasets. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Wickham investigated modifiable risk factors associated with recurrent adverse drug events, and examined how well these events are captured in health care data. These studies have implications for patient safety, and for drug safety research, as the documentation of these events is crucial in understanding and preventing their recurrence. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Magee examined the epidemiology of schizophrenia spectrum conditions and access to psychiatric services among adolescents in British Columbia. Her findings can be used to plan for adequate mental health supports for young people in BC. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Closson explored the validity evidence of a commonly used measure of gender equity in sexual and reproductive health research among South African youth. She demonstrated that measures need to be adapted to be more inclusive, contemporary, and strength-based to better reflect gender equity and the positive elements of youth relationships | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |