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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Dr. Medina examined how circulating bone marrow-derived cells are recruited to injured areas and transformed into anti-fibrogenic profile cells, which in turn control the tissue remodeling capacity of dermal fibroblasts. This research provides new insights into the role of local environments in the wound-healing outcome. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2009 | Dr. Reza Jalili successfully developed and applied a novel non-rejectable pancreatic islet graft to treat diabetes in an animal model. To make the graft resistant to rejection, a natural mechanism, used in the protection of a fetus against the mother's immune system during pregnancy, was exploited. This research opens new avenues to treat diabetes with fewer complications. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2009 | Dr. Chang studied the silencing of genes on the human X chromosome. He identified DNA sequences with potential regulatory roles in gene silencing and argued that the established mouse model system does not reflect the human scenario. This research provides novel directions to future studies of human X-chromosome inactivation. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2009 | Dr. Colozzo's work described children's memory strategies - how they change with age, relate to intellectual and language abilities, and vary from task to task. Her findings offer a solution to debates about the nature of verbal rehearsal and indicate greater individual variability than has been recognized in prior studies. | Doctor of Philosophy in Audiology and Speech Sciences (PhD) |
| 2009 | Dr. Ryan studied elements of both causative factors and treatment alternatives for overuse tendon injuries. He showed that movement differences at the ankle may contribute to the onset of Achilles tendinopathy in runners. He subsequently helped demonstrate the effectiveness of a novel new treatment approach for unresponsive tendon injury: ultrasound-guided dextrose injections. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2009 | Dr. deLeeuw studied the impact of DNA copy-number changes on the survival of mantle cell lymphoma patients. His findings point to new mechanisms involved in mantle cell lymphoma pathogenesis that hold promise for future therapies. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2009 | Dr. Prentice characterized two anti-metastatic proteins, kisspeptin and its receptor GPR54 in various model systems and clinical cases. She discovered these proteins are associated with a more favourable outcome in several cancers, most specifically ovarian. Her research could lead to a much-needed tool for earlier detection and decreased mortality | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2009 | Dr. Lett used a mouse model system to demonstrate how a previously unknown guidance cue is critical for the proper formation of specific tracts during neurodevelopment. This research provides novel insight toward a better understanding of neural network formation and neurological dysfunction resulting from erroneous neurodevelopment. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2009 | Dr. Chen investigated the molecular mechanisms involved in the development of heart disease, in particular the interaction of cholesterol-carrying proteins and the macrophage cells of the immune system, a process which contributes to the formation of plaques in the walls of arteries. These studies lead to a greater understanding of the disease and aid in the future development of novel therapies. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2009 | Dr. Hickey's research in the field of Tuberculosis provided new information regarding the localization and function of a type of bacterial protein termed a molecular chaperone. Dr. Hickey demonstrated for the first time that molecular chaperones can be found on the surface of Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria, and that these proteins play an important role in facilitating adherence between the bacteria and a host macrophages. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |