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 |
|---|---|---|
| Peters, Cheryl | School of Population and Public Health | Cancer prevention; Prevention of occupational and environmental chronic diseases; Environmental cancers; Impact of sex and gender on exposures; Health literacy |
| Petrella, Robert | Department of Family Practice | Aging; rehabilitation; Geriatrics; Chronic Disease prevention, management and control; Physical Activity; Lifestyle management |
| Pettersen, Jacqueline | Division of Neurology | memory; impact of small vessel disease on cognition; role of cerebrovascular disease in Alzheimer |
| Phang, P Terence | Department of Surgery | Colorectal cancer surgery, clinical research, diagnostic imaging, laparoscopy, sphicter-preserving resection, transanal microsurgery, medical education |
| Phillips, Anthony | Department of Psychiatry | Addictions Psychiatry, Basic Neurosciences |
| Pike, Ian | Department of Pediatrics | Health promotion and disease prevention; Child and Youth Injury Prevention; Safety-oriented culture; Indigenous child injury prevention; Social Marketing; Child Passenger Safety; Risky play; Drowning prevention |
| Pioro, Erik | Department of Medicine | |
| Pollock, Courtney | Department of Physical Therapy | Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects; Physical therapy; Rehabilitation medicine; impact of neurological changes associated with aging, disease and injury on motor control; motor control of walking balance and balance reactions |
| Poon, Brenda | School of Population and Public Health | Population-level early identification and early intervention for children with special needs; Complex systems of coordinated service delivery and supports; Family-centered services; Integrated child health information systems; Community-based research regarding social determinants of children |
| Pouladi, Mahmoud | Department of Medical Genetics | Genetic medicine; Fragile X syndrome; Huntington disease; Neurodegenerative diseases |
| Preston, Roanne | Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics | obstetric anesthesia |
| Price, Morgan | Department of Family Practice | Health Information Systems; Design; family medicine; eHealth Adoption; eHealth Requirements Engineering; eHealth Ux/UI Design; software engineering; decision support systems; Treatment Adherence; Consumer eHealth; Health System Improvement; primary care; Team-based care |
| Purssell, Roy | Department of Emergency Medicine | Emergency medicine, impaired driving, substance abuse, laboratory testing, adverse drug reactions |
| Puyat, Joseph | School of Population and Public Health | Epidemiology (except nutritional and veterinary epidemiology); Epidemiology; Biostatistics and Public Health Practice; Psychopharmacoepidemiology; mental health; Mental Health Services |
| Qayumi, Abdul Karim | Department of Surgery | Device development and testing; Long-term survival of donor organs; Interactive teaching program development |
| Quandt, Jacqueline | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Neuroinflammation in damage and repair relevant to multiple sclerosis and other nervous system disorders |
| Quon, Bradley | Division of Respiratory Medicine | Cystic Fibrosis; Epidemiology; Respiratory System; Proteomics; Immune Mediators: Cytokines and Chemokines; biomarker discovery and development; clinical epidemiology; health care economics; medication adherence |
| Rabkin, Simon | Divisions of Cardiology & Cardiovascular Surgery | Hypertension |
| Rahmim, Arman | Department of Radiology, Department of Physics & Astronomy | Clinical oncology; Medical physics; Physical sciences; Image Reconstruction; Machine learning and radiomics; medical physics; Molecular imaging; Quantitative Imaging; Theranostics |
| Rauscher, Alexander | Department of Pediatrics | Other physical sciences; Medical and biomedical engineering; magnetic resonance imaging; physics; quantitative susceptibility mapping; myelin water imaging; brain; maschine learning |
| Raymond, Lynn | Department of Psychiatry | Huntington's Disease |
| Razack, Saleem | Department of Pediatrics | Models of Care for Children with Medical Complexity in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, Anti-Racism in Medical Education, Professional Socialization for Greater Social Justice |
| Redekop, Gary | Department of Surgery | Clinical trials in stroke and cerebrovascular disease, neurosurgery |
| Regier, Dean | School of Population and Public Health | theories of behavioral economics, personalized medicine, deliberative public engagement methods to inform healthcare priority setting |
| Reid, Gregor | Department of Pediatrics | Basic medicine and life sciences; paediatric cancer; cancer immunology; animal models of cancer |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Dr. Lorentzian examined the persistence of therapeutic targets through disease progression in pediatric leukemia using a genomic and proteomic approach. Her research revealed that therapeutic targets are often persistent to relapse and supports the early characterization of drug targets to prepare treatment options in case the child relapses. | Doctor of Philosophy in Cell and Developmental Biology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Horvath worked on host cell factors that regulate HIV-1 replication. By using small molecules to target these factors, he identified novel classes of potential HIV-1 chemotherapies. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Forgrave conducted biomarker discovery and verification efforts for frontotemporal dementia with TDP-43 pathology. She revealed the need for improved classification and improved biomarkers for diagnosis are needed. Moreover, She identified disease-specific TDP-43 proteoforms and potential biomarkers for TDP-43 pathology. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Nesbit characterized the prefrontal cortex mechanisms of the novel cognitive enhancer d-govadine. Dr. Nesbit's work advances the clinical application of this compound for the treatment of cognitive symptoms in psychiatric and neurological disorders. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Gibson identified genetic variants and circulating biomarkers associated with pediatric primary systemic vasculitis, a rare and potentially life-threatening disease caused by blood vessel inflammation. These findings will assist in clinical classification and inform treatment decisions for children suffering from the disease. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Nisingizwe investigated access to Hepatitis C testing and treatment in Rwanda and internationally. Her dissertation described HCV cascade of care, and patients' barriers to HCV care in Rwanda. Globally, she highlighted countries and regions with high and low access to HCV medicines and the effect of COVID-19 on HCV drug utilization. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Andrews studied how RNA viruses evade the host immune response by degrading key host proteins. His research identified host proteins degraded during infection and provided a deeper understanding of how viruses evade host immunity, with the goal of identifying future avenues for treating and preventing virus infections. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Nierves explored the application of mass spectrometry in the interrogation of pediatric leukemia cells and microenvironment. His study assists in the characterization of leukemic cells and the pursuit of better therapeutic options for children with cancer. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Chen unravelled relationships between diabetes medications and breast, colorectal, and pancreatic cancer risk, suggesting potential risk variations with common diabetes medications. Her study underscores the significance of understanding the long-term health impacts of prescription medications, advocating more research. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Qi examined associations of widely used classes of antihypertensive medications and their subclasses with overall and site-specific risks of colorectal cancer using advanced statistical methods. His research has addressed a gap in the evidence for safety of widely used antihypertensive medications with respect to colorectal cancer risk. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |