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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 |
|---|---|---|
| Silver, David | School of Population and Public Health | Ethics |
| Sin, Donald | Division of Respiratory Medicine | CODP (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) |
| Singh, Anurag | Department of Medicine | chronic kidney disease |
| Singh, Amritpal | Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics | 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 |
| Skarsgard, Erik | Department of Surgery | Fetal surgery, Chest wall disorders in children, birth defects, neonatal surgical outcomes, perinatal networks, prenatal diagnosis and intrauerine surgery |
| Skoretz, Stacey | School of Audiology and Speech Sciences | Dysphagia; Swallowing disorders; Artifical Airways; Mechanical ventilation; Integration of multiple systems and biomarkers during swallowing; Swallowing following artificial airway use and/or non-invasive ventilation; Cross-species conceptual frameworks of feeding and swallowing rehabilitation; Dysphagia risk profile; Early identification of dysphagia; Biomechanical and biomarker analyses; Clinical practice pattern assessment; Clinical practice guideline development for those with artificial airways |
| Sladen, Douglas | School of Audiology and Speech Sciences | Medical, health and life sciences; cochlear implantation among children and adults |
| Sly, Laura | Department of Pediatrics | Innate immunity; Inflammatory bowel disease; Inflammation; macrophages; Cell signalling |
| Small, Jeff | School of Audiology and Speech Sciences | Other health sciences; communication; Dementia; strategies; memory training; hearing loss; Accessibility; Stigma |
| So, Alan | Department of Urologic Sciences | study of development of novel therapeutics for bladder cancer and determination of the functional role of GLI1/2 in the progression of prostate cancer to its lethal stage of androgen independence; discovery and development of novel agents to treat bladder cancer as well as development of the mechanisms of treatment resistance in renal cell carcinoma. |
| Sobolev, Boris | School of Population and Public Health | Health care, access, epidemiology, biostatistics, registries, simulation, policy evaluation, Methodology for analysis of waiting times, risk of adverse events while awaiting elective surgery, and the use of simulation experiments in policy evaluation |
| Socias, Eugenia | Division of Social Medicine | Health care effectiveness and outcomes; Infectious diseases; Clinical sciences, n.e.c.; Infectious disease epidemiology; Immunology of Infectious Diseases; HIV & Hepatitic C care; Sexually Transmitted Diseases; HIV; Tuberculosis; Pharmacology; HIV Prevention; Health Services; Hepatitis C; Tropical Diseases; Vulnerable populations; Gender/sexual minorities; Sex workers; Opioid use disorder; substance use disorders; alcohol use disorders; addiction medicine |
| Somasekharan, Syam | Department of Urologic Sciences | Cancer, n.e.c.; Cell biology, n.e.c.; RNA Biology; Cell Biology; molecular biology; Biomolecular Condensates; Nucleolus; mRNA Translation; Liquid-liquid Phase Separation |
| Sorensen, Poul | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Childhood cancer cells, genomic science |
| Spering, Miriam | Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences | Biological sciences; vision; movement; perception and action; eye movements; hand movements; eye-hand coordination; sport vision; Parkinson's disease |
| Spiegel, Jerry | School of Population and Public Health | Global health, International health, environmental health, Cuba, Latin America, Effects of globalization on health, ecosystem approaches to human health, understanding and addressing influences of physical and social environments on health, global health and human security, the economic evaluation of interventions, and health and equity in Latin America |
| Spittal, Patricia | School of Population and Public Health | Indigenous/Aboriginal Health, HIV work in Uganda, |
| Steel, Daniel | School of Population and Public Health | Addiction; Diversity; ethics; Opioid crisis; Clinical trials; Equity; Philosophy / Ethics; philosophy of science; Values and science risk; Precautionary principle |
| Steidl, Christian | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Hematological tumours; Cancer; Cancer biology; Pathology; lymphoma; tumor microenvironment; Precision Medicine; genomics |
| Steif, Adi | Department of Medical Genetics | 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 |
| Steiner, Theodore | Division of Infectious Diseases | Innate immunity, intestinal epithelial cells, inflammatory bowel disease, C difficile infection, tropical medicine, international health |
| Stewart, Evelyn | Department of Psychiatry | Genetic, phenotypic, and developmental aspects of childhood neuropsychiatric disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder |
| Stirling, Peter | Department of Medical Genetics | Clinical oncology; Genetic medicine; Biological and Biochemical Mechanisms; Cancer; cancer genetics; Cell; DNA repair; Genome Instability; Genotoxins; Molecular Genetics; Stress responses |
| Stockler-Ipsiroglu, Sylvia | Department of Pediatrics | Diabetes, Nutrition & Metabolism (Nutrition & Metabolism), pathophysiology and treatment of neurometabolic disorders, ceberal creatine deficiency syndromes, cerebral glucose dificiency syndromes, epilepsy, mental retardation |
| Stoessl, A Jon | Division of Neurology | Parkinson's disease |
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. Kwon's work focused on developing radiopharmaceuticals targeting molecular markers present on cancers with poor outcomes. These radiopharmaceuticals are able to both image and treat cancers through radiation emission. Several candidates showed better performance than the standard of care and will be considered for clinical investigation. | Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy (MDPhD) |
| 2023 | Dr.Chen developed a novel drug for treating stroke. He also extended his research interest to employing precision medicine to assit the management of young patients with epilepy that are caused by rare variants. His studies showed a great potential in improving the life quality of the old and young patients. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Pataky's research explored methods to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of precision medicine technologies. She found that using genomic testing to define eligibility for cancer therapy can provide value for money. These new evaluation methods will help health care systems to better assess the value of funding precision medicine. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Yagi investigated sex differences in how new neurons in the hippocampus are related to learning and memory in males and females, and roles of estrogens in females. He found sex differences in new cell production and how they are integrated into the brain. This knowledge will lead to a better understanding of hippocampus-related diseases. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Huang studied the impact of genetics on heart-related side effects caused by cancer drugs, and explored ways to minimize them. Her research offers new insights that can assist doctors in identifying genetic mutations in patients before initiating cancer therapies, improving cancer treatment safety and efficacy. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Kajabadi identifies the cell population and molecular signals responsible for inducing muscle atrophy, a progressive condition of muscle loss commonly seen in chronic pathologies such as cancer associated cachexia. This finding can help in developing therapeutics aimed at ameliorating disease-induced muscle atrophy. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Langman studied mechanisms of stress adaptation in cancer cells and identified novel functions of stress granule proteins in tumor growth and metastasis. Her research revealed new therapeutic targets for some of the deadliest pediatric cancers. | Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Oncology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Solomons studied patterns of nervous system sensitisation in musculoskeletal pain syndromes. This research gives insight into the nature of persistent pain problems that is expected to inform more effective management strategies. | Doctor of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Sciences (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Hathaway studied risky decision making in rats. They found that pairing lights and sounds with reward on a risky decision-making task can both increase risky choice and impair flexibility. They identified the orbitofrontal cortex as a key region underlying this effect. These findings advance our understanding of gambling disorder in humans. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Ha studied the function and regulation of a unique class of genes which are expressed only when inherited from the mother or father. Her research furthers our understanding of the mechanism regulating the expression of a maternally-expressed gene and may impact the management and diagnosis of patients with imprinting disorders. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |