
Jamie Kwon
Master of Science in Experimental Medicine (MSc)
Developing a blood-based miRNA biomarker for oropharyngeal cancer
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 |
---|---|---|
Fairbairn, Nadia | Division of Social Medicine | Drug Abuse |
Fast, Danya | Division of Social Medicine | Social sciences; Substance Use; Substance Use Care; Adolescents and Young Adults; urban health; Urban Poverty; Medical Anthropology; Canada; East Africa |
Fedida, David | Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics | How the heart generates, maintains and regulates electrical activity, Anesthesiology |
Field, Thalia | Division of Neurology | stroke; Clinical trials; cerebral venous thrombosis; outcomes; cognition; Machine Learning |
Fisher, Charles | Department of Orthopaedics | adult spine surgery, with special clinical and research interests in trauma, oncology and evidence-based medicine |
Flannigan, Ryan | Department of Urologic Sciences | evaluating genetic and molecular mechanisms contributing to non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) |
Fleetham, John | Division of Respiratory Medicine | Sleep disorders, neuromuscular disorders, obstructive sleep apnea, imaging techniques, respiratory muscle function, systemic blood pressure, hypothalamic pituitary function, psychological status, disordered breathing |
Forbes, Connor | Department of Urologic Sciences | Urology; Other basic medicine and life sciences; Drug discovery, design and delivery; Endourology; Minimally Invasive Surgery; Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia; Kidney stones; Translational research |
Forster, Bruce | Department of Radiology | Radiology; imaging |
Forwell, Susan | Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy | Neurological conditions and their impact on chosen occupations |
Foster, Leonard | Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Michael Smith Laboratories | Biochemistry; Genomics; Agriculture; antigen presentation; Bioinformatics; Biological and Biochemical Mechanisms; Biotechnology; Cell Signaling and Infectious and Immune Diseases; Honey bees; host-pathogen interactions; Immune System; Microbiology; Proteomics; Systems Biology |
Francis, Gordon | Division of Endocrinology | lipoproteins; Cholesterol metabolism; Cardiovascular risk factors; Prevention of cardiovascular disease and diabetes; High density lipoproteins (HDL) |
Frangou, Sophia | Department of Psychiatry | the study of the human brain in health and disease |
Frank, Erica | School of Population and Public Health | Health sciences; Public and population health; Other education; Free education; Preventive Medicine; Sustainable Architecture and Landscape Architecture; Holocaust studies; Exile Reintegration; Democratization; Intervention Research |
Freeman, Hugh James | Division of Gastroenterology | Intestinal Diseases |
Friedman, Jan Marshall | Department of Medical Genetics | Other clinical medicine; Genetic medicine; Genomics; Health counselling; Application of whole genome sequencing to diagnose genetic disease; Birth defects epidemiology; Clinical genomics; Developmental Genetics; Genetics and Heredity; Neurofibromatosis |
Gadermann, Anne | Social determinants of health; Housing and homelessness; Quality of | |
Gao, Zu-Hua | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | |
Garbuz, Donald | Department of Orthopaedics | reconstructive surgery of the hip and knee; novel imaging techniques to assess early changes in articular cartilage, which may be indicators for osteoarthritis |
Garnis, Catherine | Department of Surgery | Cancer biology; Tumor progression; Oral premalignant lesions; Head and neck cancer; RNA biology, microRNAs; Alternative splicing; Biomarkers |
Geller, Josie | Department of Psychiatry | Eating Disorders |
Geoffrion, Roxana | Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology | patient education, surgical outcomes after various pelvic reconstructive surgeries and surgical skill development through simulation and standardized training; pelvic floor reconstruction procedures such as vaginal prolapse or urinary incontinence surgery |
Gerrie, Alina | Division of Medical Oncology | Clinical medicine; Lymphoid Cancer; Leukemia; genomics; Population-based outcomes; Cellular therapy; Quality of life; Survivorship |
Giaschi, Deborah | Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences | Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects; Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; amblyopia; reading; dyslexia; motion perception; binocular vision; visual development |
Gibson, William | Department of Medical Genetics | Genetic medicine; Genetic Diseases; Chromosomes: Structure / Organization; Epigenetics |
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 |
---|---|---|
2024 | Dr. Rafizadeh's work investigated the comparative effectiveness of clozapine versus other antipsychotics in improving outcomes related to non-nicotine substance use disorders, which commonly co-occurs with schizophrenia. It also explored factors influencing clozapine metabolism to tailor dosing for individuals and mitigate potential side effects. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
2024 | Dr. Banville studied B cells in the context of the immune response to ovarian cancer. She defined tumour-associated B cell reactivity patterns and discovered novel target antigens. Her findings suggest multi-faceted roles for B cells in anti-tumour immunity which will ultimately guide the development of more effective cancer immunotherapies. | Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Oncology (PhD) |
2024 | Dr. Gemmell studied how urban environments impact children’s health and human rights, including the right to play. She developed and mapped a playability index across Canadian cities, identifying disparities in neighbourhood quality for children’s outdoor play. Her research advances assessment of urban environments for child health and well-being. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
2024 | Dr. Usman studied how the lungs repair after injury, both in healthy people and those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). She found that the inflammatory mediator, interleukin-1 alpha is vital in preventing scaring, and that targeting specific master regulators of this mediator could lead to new treatments for COPD. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmacology (PhD) |
2024 | Dr. Merry studied how and why exercise therapies are used to manage chronic Achilles tendon injuries. He applied this knowledge to develop a new tele-rehabilitation system to improve treatment, which is now in pilot testing with patients. | Doctor of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Sciences (PhD) |
2024 | Dr. Bahreyni investigated the use of microRNA-modified Coxsackievirus B3 (miR-CVB3) in breast cancer treatment. His research explored how combining miR-CVB3 with immune-enhancers and advanced delivery methods might offer improvements in therapy. Dr. Bahreyni's work provides useful insights into potential strategies for enhancing cancer treatment. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
2024 | Dr. Rubino investigated human behaviour and brain function in the acquisition and performance of skilled actions using eye-tracking, interactive robotics and brain imaging. Her work reveals that the oculomotor system plays a role in both developing motor skills and performing motor tasks after stroke. Her work offers a new avenue into discovery for stroke neurorehabilitation. | Doctor of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Sciences (PhD) |
2024 | Dr. Vikulova studied risk factors and barriers to preventing early-onset heart disease. She found that many young adults are unaware of their high risk and do not get preventive treatment and that screening first-degree relatives of patients with early-onset heart disease may help identify those at high risk and those with silent plaques in heart blood vessels to initiate preventive therapy timely. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
2024 | Auditory Brainstem Response audiometry is the typical method for estimating hearing thresholds in infants. New stimuli called narrowband chirps (NBchirps) may elicit larger responses than traditional stimuli. However, Dr. Adjekum's research indicates that NBchirps have a wider spectral content, leading to responses from broader cochlear regions, wh | Doctor of Philosophy in Audiology and Speech Sciences (PhD) |
2024 | Dr. Kenward characterized crucial viral proteins and mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2, revealing core features of its cysteine protease and identifying potential antiviral targets. This work advances our understanding of the virus's lifecycle and aids in the development of resilient therapeutics against COVID-19 and future viral threats. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |