Samantha Dziurdzik
Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD)
Identification of membrane-targeting factors for neurodegeneration-associated VPS13 proteins
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.
Name | Academic Unit(s) | Research Interests |
---|---|---|
Kurteva, Siyana | Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics | |
Kwon, Janice | Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology | health policy relating to gynecologic cancers as well as hereditary cancer syndromes |
Kwon, Brian | Department of Orthopaedics | Spinal cord injury |
Lacaille, Diane | Division of Rheumatology | General internal, Arthritis & Joint Health |
Lack, Nathan | Department of Urologic Sciences | late-stage prostate cancer |
Laher, Ismail | Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics | Pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences (except clinical aspects); Cardiovascular diseases; animal models of sleep apnea; Diabetes; exercise; oxidative stress; regulation of small artery tone, mechanisms of pressuce-induced vasomotor responses, exercise, sleep |
Laksman, Zachary | Divisions of Cardiology & Cardiovascular Surgery, School of Biomedical Engineering | |
Lallous, Nada | Department of Urologic Sciences | Cancer drug development and therapeutics; Cancer progression and metastasis; Cancer molecular targets; Biochemistry; Biophysics; Cancer biology; Therapeutics; Protein research; Drug resistance; transcription factors |
Lam, Stephen C | Division of Respiratory Medicine | Lung cancer, optical imaging, tomography, spectroscopy |
Lam, Wan | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Cancer progression; Genome biology; Epigenetics; Molecular Systems Biology; Lung Cancer; Technology Development |
Lam, Raymond | Department of Psychiatry | Psychiatry (including psychotherapy); depression; Biomarkers; light therapy; cognition; digital technologies; bipolar disorder; antidepressants; global mental health |
Lan, James | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Kidneys and Urinary System; Histocompatibility; Immunogenetics |
Lang, Donna | Department of Radiology | Medical, health and life sciences; Structural Neuroimaging; Psychosis; Addiction; cognition; Cardiovascular Function; Microvascular integrity |
Lange, Dirk | Department of Urologic Sciences | Ureteral stents; antifouling coatings; antimicrobial coatings; device complications |
Lange, Philipp | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Bioinformatics; Genomics; Pathology (except oral pathology); Cell Signaling and Cancer; mass spectrometry; pediatric cancer; personalized medicine; post translational protein modification; Proteomics |
Langlois, Sylvie | Department of Medical Genetics | Studies of genotype/phenotype correlations in single gene disorders; Validations of genomic tools for the study of mental retardation and prenatal screening for aneuploidy; Outcome studies related to prenatal genetic screening |
Lansdorp, Peter | Department of Medical Genetics | Genetic medicine; Application of single cell Strand-seq in precision medicine; Applied Genetics; cellular aging; Cellular Degeneration; Cellular Division; Complex Trait Genetics; DNA replication, epigenetics and stem cells; Gene Regulation and Expression; Genetic Diseases; Stem Cells and Organogenesis; telomeres; Telomeres, genomic instability, aging and cancer |
Lapointe, Melissa | ||
Lau, Joseph | Department of Radiology | Cancer drug development and therapeutics; Nuclear medicine; Cancer; Radiopharmaceuticals; Imaging; Radiotherapy |
Laule, Cornelia | Department of Radiology, Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Medical physics; Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects; Pathology (except oral pathology); Auto-Immune Diseases; Axons; brain; Central Nervous System Inflammatory Diseases; Cerebral Atrophy; Histology; image analysis; Imaging; Inflammation; magnetic resonance imaging; Magnetic resonance spectroscopy; multiple sclerosis; myelin; Nervous System Development; Neurodegenerative diseases; Neurological diseases; Neuronal Systems; pain; Pathology; Schizophrenia; Spinal Cord Diseases; spinal cord; Spinal cord injury |
Lavallee, Danielle | Patient and citizen engagement research; Health systems; patient-oriented research; Patient-Reported Outcomes | |
Lavoie, Pascal | Department of Pediatrics | Neonatal Immunity, Infection/Inflammation, Inheritance/Genetics of Neonatal Morbidities, Neonatal Chronic Lung Disease |
Law, Michael | School of Population and Public Health | Health care administration; Health sciences; Public and population health; Global Health; Global Health and Emerging Diseases; Health Policies; Health Policy; Observational studies; Pharmaceutical policy; Pharmacoeconomics; Pharmacoepidemiology; Program evaluation |
Leavitt, Blair | Department of Medical Genetics | Genetic medicine; Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects; Alzheimer's disease; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis; Ataxia; Dementia; Experimental Therapeutics; Frontotemporal Dementia; Gene regulation; Gene Silencing and Gene Editing; Gene Therapy; Huntington disease; Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells; Medical Genetics; Mouse models of disease; Neurodegenerative diseases; Neurogenetics |
Lee, Tim | Department of Dermatology & Skin Science | Computing; Early Cancer Detection; Epidemiologic Research on Skin Cancer |
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 |
---|---|---|
2022 | Dr. Hall's research synthesized health economics with learning health systems to support strategic management of care portfolios. Through the development and implementation of his 'Economic Learning Health System' framework, he assisted a health authority with the optimization of care delivery for seniors receiving home health services. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. van Ballegooie examined how polyethylene glycol conjugated protein based nanoparticles could be synthesized using microfluidics for applications in pharmaceutics requiring IV administration. She also demonstrated potential use as a triggered release system for combinatorial therapy (radiation + chemotherapy) used in cancer treatment regimes. | Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Oncology (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Decotret investigated various ways cancer cells spread throughout the body. She found a novel role for a widely expressed molecule called PTP alpha in breast cancer cell invasion and developed an advanced method for tracking the invasion of brain cancer cells into surrounding brain tissue. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Yen studied drug resistance mechanisms in chronic myeloid leukemia by identifying predictive microRNA biomarkers and exploring the role of the translation initiation complex. This research will help stratify drug-insensitive patients and develop alternative combination treatments to treat them. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Sadasivan investigated how RNA viruses inhibit cellular stress responses during virus infection. He showed that a virally encoded protein modulates the activity of a key host protein to evade the stress response. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Tran examined a novel method of achieving compatibility between donors and recipients in kidney transplantation. She demonstrated that matching at immunogenic protein motifs is feasible and clinically beneficial in preventing graft failure. This work is now acting as the foundation for a national matching program for kidney organ allocation. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Crockett used novel brain imaging techniques to determine functional brain networks disrupted in older adults vulnerable to dementia. She also studied the benefits of physical activity and resistance training for brain health. Her take away message is: to make gains for brains, we should all regularly squat low and feel our brains grow. | Doctor of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Sciences (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Li investigated a class of oxidative enzymes that are traditionally researched for their potential to convert non-edible plant biomass into second-generation bioethanol. He subsequently showed that these enzymes are also highly suitable to facilitate chemical modification of biomass fibres into value-added bio-products. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Atoyebi explored the needs of family caregivers of people with neurocognitive disorders as well as possible solutions to address those needs. He collaborated with caregivers and care recipients to develop a medium fidelity prototype of their most preferred solution, which is a web-based service to assist families in hiring paid support workers. | Doctor of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Sciences (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Johnson investigated how a new drug candidate selectively kills lung cancer cells by an oxidative stress-linked mechanism of action. He identified specific enzymes that are inhibited and demonstrated why lung cancer cells are sensitive but normal cells are not. His research will help the development of new, targeted anti-cancer therapeutics. | Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Oncology (PhD) |