Applicants to Master’s and Doctoral degrees are not affected by the recently announced cap on study permits. Review more details
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Dr. Jones characterized a mouse line which expresses a fluorescent protein only when inherited from the female parent. This tool will be useful for studying diseases caused by a specific type of genes, called imprinted genes, which function differently depending on whether they are inherited from the mother or the father. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2010 | Dr. Vasuta examined how the function of a major receptor in the brain is regulated. This receptor mediates excitation in the nervous system, and is linked to learning and memory formation. She proved that exercise influences synaptic phenomena that may be the basis of memory acquisition and consolidation. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2010 | Dr. Dauphinee studied the innate immune response to bacterial infection. Her research described the function of a novel protein important in regulating the cellular events that control inflammation. Her work will ultimately assist in developing therapeutics that can be used to decrease the severity of the inflammatory response during infection. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2010 | Dr. Chan studied honey bees and their ability to fight a highly contagious bacterial disease. She discovered that young bees lacked key proteins, which resulted in high susceptibility to infection. This research was the first detailed look into the molecular biology of the developing bee immune system. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |
| 2010 | One out of every five deaths in Canada is caused by heart attacks. Dr. Riazy studied the molecular mechanisms by which the bad cholesterol and its oxidized form contribute to this process. His results can be used to identify prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets for heart attacks and other chronic inflammatory diseases. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2010 | Dr. Wong identified the first natural marine compound that can enhance axon outgrowth in the adult central nervous system. Using motile cells to model the neuronal growth cone, the basic machinery underlying axon outgrowth, she designed a high-throughput screen to identify the first cyclic dipeptide that promoted axon regeneration in vitro, as well as axon sprouting and behavioural improvements in vivo. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2010 | Through functional magnetic resonance imaging, Dr. Zwicker showed that children with developmental coordination disorder use different brain areas from typical children to perform a motor task. Her work is one of the first studies to show that children with this common childhood disorder are neurobiologically different from their peers. | Doctor of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Sciences (PhD) |
| 2009 | Dr. Patchell identified and characterized the role of annexin II in airway epithelial cell biology. His results expand our understanding of how the airway epithelium repairs itself and may lead to new approaches for treatment of conditions, such as asthma, where damage to the airway epithelium is present. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2009 | Dr. Antignano studied immune cell biology at the Terry Fox Laboratory where she identified new molecular mechanisms controlling the development and function of the immune system's dendritic cells. This work has important applications in the understanding of human infectious disease, autoimmune disorders, cancer and clinical treatments such as organ transplantation. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2009 | Dr. Hewapathirane created a novel experimental model to study the effects of seizures on brain development. Using this system, he found that early-life seizures inhibit the structural maturation of neuronal cells within the brain. His findings uncovered a potential mechanism through which childhood seizures may induce neurological deficits. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |