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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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wellington, Cheryl Lea | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Alzheimer disease; dementia; metabolism; cardiovascular system; neurodegeneration; concussion; traumatic brain injury (TBI) |
| Weng, Andrew | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Molecular biology |
| West, Christopher | Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences | Systems physiology; Animal physiology, circulation; Integrative physiology; Spinal cord injury; Animal models |
| Whittaker, Jacqueline | Department of Physical Therapy | Physical therapy; Exercise counselling; Exercise therapy; Health care; Kinesiology; Knee injuries; Knee osteoarthritis; Low back pain; Osteoarthritis prevention; Physical Activity; physical therapy; rehabilitation; Sport injury prevention; sports medicine; Sports/exercise; Ultrasound Imaging; Wearable activity tracker; youth |
| Wiens, Matthew | Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics | Global health; Sepsis; Prediction modelling; Epidemiology; Pediatric infectious diseases; Post-discharge outcomes; Global Health; Digital health |
| Wilson, David | Department of Orthopaedics | Medical and biomedical engineering |
| Wiseman, Sam Michael | Department of Surgery | Surgical oncology, endocrine surgeyr, general surgery, clinic/translational research, education/teaching |
| Wong, Hubert | School of Population and Public Health | Health sciences; Public and population health; Biostatistical methods; Clinical trial design |
| Wood, Evan | Division of Social Medicine | Public and population health; Addiction; alcohol; Occupational Addiction Medicine; Epidemiology; Evidence-based care of Substance Use Disorders; opioids; Population health |
| Woodward, Todd | Department of Psychiatry | Cognitive neuropsychiatry and functional neuroimaging |
| Wright, Stephen | Department of Physical Therapy | Circulatory physiology; pulmonary physiology; heart function; exercise; rehabilitation; Aging; chronic disease |
| Wyatt, Alexander | Department of Urologic Sciences | Medical, health and life sciences; Prostate Cancer; Circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA); Bladder cancer; Precision oncology; Clinical trials; Bioinformatics; Cancer Genomics; Cell-Free DNA (cfDNA); Correlative science; Liquid biopsy |
| Yachie, Nozomu | School of Biomedical Engineering | |
| Yassi, Annalee | School of Population and Public Health | occupational health, health of health workers, international health, global health, community-based research, capacity building, Latin America, evidence-based best practices, workplace injury and illness prevention, HIV and TB prevention and care for health workers, South Africa |
| Yatham, Lakshmi | Department of Psychiatry | Mood & Anxiety Disorders |
| Yee, John | Department of Surgery | Lung transplantation, thoracic oncology, pulmonary surgery |
| Yip, Stephen | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Pathology (except oral pathology); Cancer Genomics/Epigenomics/Proteomics; molecular diagnostics; Neuro-oncology; Neuropathology |
| Yip, Calvin | Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology | Biochemistry; Gene Regulation and Expression; Genetic Diseases; Enzymes and Proteins; Biological and Biochemical Mechanisms; Molecular Structure and Sizing; Imaging; Chromatin modification / epigenetic regulation; Molecular etiologies of rare diseases; Regulation of autophagy degradation |
| Yong, Paul | Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology | pelvic pain, with a particular interest in endometriosis, painful periods, sexual pain, co-existing bladder and bowel problems, and pain related to the musculoskeletal system; laparoscopic excision of complex endometriosis and prevention of adhesions in women with endometriosis and pelvic pain and infertility |
| Yoshida, Eric | Division of Gastroenterology | liver disease including autoimmune; viral hepatitis (including Hepatitis B, C and non-B, non-C); liver transplantation; aboriginal issues regarding liver diseases, viral hepatitis, transplantation; biomedical ethics of transplantation |
| Younger, Alastair | Department of Orthopaedics | ankle arthritis, foot and ankle arthroscopy, biological enhancement to bone healing |
| Zandstra, Peter | School of Biomedical Engineering, Michael Smith Laboratories | Medical biotechnology; Medical and biomedical engineering; Stem cell bioengineering; Bioengineering; Synthetic biology; Biomedical Engineering; Immuno-engineering; Biotechnology; Computational Biology; Computational modeling; Gene/Cell Therapy Systems; genomics; Immunology; personalized medicine; Regenerative medicine |
| Zeng, Haishan | Department of Dermatology & Skin Science | Family practice, dermatology |
| Zhou, Youwen | Department of Dermatology & Skin Science | Autoimmunity; Dermatology; Gene and molecular therapy; Translation research; Genetics and genomics of skin diseases; Vitiligo, pigmentation diseases, eczema; Innovative therapeutic development |
| Zhou, Lily | Division of Neurology | Public and population health; Cerebrovascular Diseases; Stroke Epidemiology; Cost Effectiveness of Medical Interventions |
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. Sharafian studied T cell development in infants, focusing on the physiological effects of T cells on the intestinal organoid model. She found that T cells induce the proliferation and differentiation of the infant's intestinal epithelial cells. Her work has potential implications for therapeutic advancements in infant intestinal diseases. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2023 | Translational approaches to restoring autonomic dysfunction after spinal cord injury | Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy (MDPhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Virk adapted a self-administered mental health screening instrument for post-secondary students (called HEARTSMAP-U). He applied a user-centred approach and engaged diverse student sub-populations in validating the instrument, to ensure it can be accurately and equitably applied in post-secondary educational settings. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Tan developed a novel oncogene-induced de novo model of triple negative human breast cancer by forcing the expression of various mutant genes in normal human mammary cells. It offers a powerful platform to analyze the complete sequence of changes that lead to the genesis of aggressive breast cancers and hence test new therapeutic strategies. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Wang studied the biological process that regulates the cells that give rise to different types of white blood cells in humans. She found these cells proliferate at a faster speed at an early step of their differentiation. In addition, the generation of lymphocytes is dependent on a mechanism that controls how their genomic DNA is organized. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Wang examined how the drug mefenamic acid affects the delayed cardiac rectifier current revealing a drug binding site. In neuroscience, she identified aberrant forelimb motor behavior and cortical changes in a Huntington Disease mouse model. This research revealed the importance of multiple techniques in therapeutic development. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Nethery explored how we screen for gestational diabetes in pregnancy. Her work showed that changes in screening methods in BC were the primary drivers for a rapid increase in this condition. This points to an ongoing need to balance benefits and burdens of this diagnosis when considering screening changes. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Mei's research examined the mechanisms that control the size of the two daughter cells that result from a cell division. The findings from Dr. Mei's thesis link the loss of daughter cell size control with breast cancer development. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Philippe identified novel neuronal targets involved in adaptive responses to stress. He subsequently demonstrated these to modulate the serotonin subtype 1A receptor. Finally, he set the stage to study the role, connectivity, and effects of this modulation on health-related risk factors (e.g. metabolism, stress hormone, behaviour). | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Zhao investigated membrane proteins using a membrane mimetic -- peptidiscs. Results showed peptidiscs enables the enrichment of membrane proteins in a water-soluble environment. The study can be beneficial to cancer biologists to discover novel biomarkers and drug targets and to biochemists to study membrane proteins in a native-like state. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |