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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 |
|---|---|---|
| Street, John | Department of Orthopaedics | Helmet performance, Injury prevention |
| Stringhini, Silvia | School of Population and Public Health | social inequalities in chronic diseases and ageing, role of health behaviours in the genesis of social inequalities in health, biological consequences of social inequalities, role of environmental factors in social inequalities in health |
| Strynadka, Natalie | Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology | Blood Research, structure-based design of inhibitors, antibiotic-resistance mechanisms, macromolecular assemblies, bacterial viability pathogenesis |
| Stuart, Gavin | Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology | Medicine |
| Subramaniam, Sriram | Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology | Health sciences; Medical, health and life sciences; Structural Biology; cryo-electron microscopy; drug discovery; Cryo-electron tomography; Antibody design; Protein therapeutics; COVID-19 therapeutic design; Infectious disease; Artificial Intelligence; Machine Learning |
| Sutherland, Jason | School of Population and Public Health | Health care effectiveness and outcomes; Health care administration; Access to care; Healthcare costs; Health systems; Patient-Reported Outcomes; Quality; Surgery |
| Swindale, Nicholas | Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences | Bioinformatics; Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects; Eye and Visual System Diseases; Neuronal Modeling; Neuronal Systems; Visual System |
| Takei, Fumio | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Molecular immunology, cancer, cell-cell interactions |
| Talhouk, Aline | Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology | Human reproduction and development sciences; Computer Science and Statistics; Epidemiology; Bioinformatics; Cancer of the Reproductive System; diagnostic models; Digital health; Machine Learning; personalized medicine; prevention; Privacy |
| Tam, Roger | School of Biomedical Engineering | Machine learning; Biomedical signal processing; Biomedical Design and Innovation; Biomedical Technologies; Computer Science and Statistics; Data Analytics; Medical Imaging; Machine Learning; Neurodegenerative diseases; Precision Medicine; Radiology |
| Tamber, Mandeep | Department of Surgery | Surgery; clinical epidemiology; registry research; epilepsy surgery; Hydrocephalus; Craniofacial surgery; pediatric neurosurgery |
| Tanentzapf, Guy | Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences | How cell adhesion contributes to muscle function, and stem cell biology |
| Tang, Tricia | Division of Endocrinology | Diabetes; Behavioral and Psychosocial Issues associated with Diabetes Self-management. |
| Taubert, Stefan | Department of Medical Genetics | Other health sciences; Gene regulation and expression; Transcriptomics; Genomics; Aging; beta cells; C. elegans; Diabetes; Gene Regulation and Expression; Gene regulation; Genetics of Aging; genomics; Hypoxia; Metabolism; Molecular Genetics; Mouse; stress; Stress and Cancer; Stress responses; Toxin and Toxicant Metabolism; Transcription |
| Taylor, Steven | Department of Psychiatry | Anxiety disorders, stress, posttraumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, health anxiety, hypochondriasis, psychotherapy, cognitive-behavior therapy, mental disorders, psychiatric diagnosis |
| Taylor, David | Department of Surgery | Medical, health and life sciences; Vascular surgery and diseases |
| Tebbutt, Scott | Division of Respiratory Medicine | Basic medicine and life sciences; Dual organism molecular interaction (fungal spores & human airway epithelium); Early and late reactions in allergic asthma and rhinitis; Diagnostics of acute heart rejection post-transplantation; Neonatal vaccine immunogenicity; Systems biology, biomarkers & bioinformatics; Rheumatic fever and heart disease; COVID-19 |
| Teichman, Joel | Department of Urologic Sciences | Endourology and interstitial cystitis; Kidney stones; Holmium:YAG lithotripsy; Development of optical fibers; Laser lithotripsy; Femtosecond laser ablation |
| Teves, Sheila | Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology | Biochemistry; Genomics; Epigenetics; Genetics; Genome Science; Molecular Epigenetics (MEG); molecular biology; Transcriptional memory and cellular identity in mouse embryonic stem cells |
| Thompson, Wade | Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics | Health services and systems; ensuring older persons are taking medications that are a good fit; deprescribing; polypharmacy |
| Ti, Lianping | Division of Social Medicine | Epidemiology; Community Health / Public Health; Artificial Intelligence; Drug Abuse; Health Policies; Substance Use; Harm reduction; Public health; Health Services; Administrative data; data science |
| Traboulsee, Tony | Division of Neurology | Neurology; Central nervous system; Biomedical signal processing; Machine learning; magnetic resonance imaging; multiple sclerosis; Neuromyelitls optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD); Myelin Oligodendrocyte Antibody Disorder (MOGAD); Brain MRI; Spinal Cord MRI |
| Tremlett, Helen | Division of Neurology | Epidemiology (except nutritional and veterinary epidemiology); multiple sclerosis; Neuroepidemiology; Pharmacoepidemiology; prodrome,; Drug safety and effectiveness; Pharmacogenomics; comorbidities; health administrative data; Gut microbiome; prodromes |
| Tsang, Teresa | Divisions of Cardiology & Cardiovascular Surgery | Epidemiology and pathophysiology of atrial fibrillation; application of advanced echocardiographic techniques for prediction of pre-clinical cardiovascular disease |
| Turvey, Stuart | Department of Pediatrics | Immunology; Microbiology; Asthma; Immune System; Immunodeficiencies; Microbiome cohort studies; Precision Medicine; Primary Immune Deficiencies |
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. Scott identified genetic predictors for two chemotherapy-related adverse drug reactions: cisplatin-induced hearing loss and anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity. This research informs the development of genetic tests to predict and prevent these adverse reactions and ultimately improve the quality of life for cancer patients. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Ahmed showed the mechanistic pathway by which the growth factor myostatin increases the invasion of human placenta into the mother's womb to support the developing baby. Her study illustrates a role for myostatin in pregnancy. It also helps in understanding the effects of its dysregulation in several pregnancy complications. | Doctor of Philosophy in Reproductive and Developmental Sciences (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Syed studied the acute effects of air pollution on lung function and exercise responses in individuals with & without COPD. He found that air pollution negatively affected exercise responses more in healthy individuals compared to COPD. This work has implications for physical activity guidelines during periods of increased air pollution. | Doctor of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Sciences (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. MacAldaz examined blood stem cells capable of life-long blood production. She identified a strategy to isolate these cells at high purity from fetal sources and discovered culture conditions that preserve their potent regenerative properties. This research will enable the development of ways to manipulate these cells for clinical applications. | Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Oncology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Vappala developed cationic polymeric agents that are safe and effective in treating sepsis. They reduce thrombosis and hyperinflammation in sepsis by targeting polyanionic mediators. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Ji characterized the unique proteomic and metabolomic landscapes of clear cell ovarian carcinoma. She subsequently identified a metabolic vulnerability as a potential therapeutic target in uncommon ovarian cancers. Her work provided further insight into this aggressive malignancy and rich resources for the ovarian cancer research community. | Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy (MDPhD) |
| 2023 | A family of viruses called dicistroviruses contains many copies of a protein, a rarity for viruses. Dr. Warsaba investigated the reasons for this and explored the conservation of this duplication. Reid found that these viruses duplicate this protein to produce the correct amounts of their viral proteins, revealing insights into virus evolution. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Aceves investigated the effects of non-invasive brain stimulation in healthy brains. Her research centered on the evaluation of neurotransmission and brain function, providing insights into the therapeutic applications of this brain-stimulation technique. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Stubbs studied how traumatic brain injury affects the health of people who are homeless. He identified that serious brain injury is common in this population, and he used quantitative brain imaging to show how it affects health and functioning over time. His findings have implications for individual-level treatments and system-level policies. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Trinder showed that common and rare genetic variation can be used to predict an individual's risk of cardiovascular disease. He used these findings to implement genetic testing for cardiovascular disorders at St. Paul's Hospital's Healthy Heart Program. This work highlights the promise of genomic medicine for preventing and treating cardiac disease. | Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy (MDPhD) |