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 |
|---|---|---|
| Reilly, Christopher | Department of Orthopaedics | Paediatric spine, Paediatric sports injuries, Paediatric trauma, Medical education |
| Renouf, Daniel | Division of Medical Oncology | Developmental Therapeutics; Pancreatic cancer; Colorectal Cancer; Cancer Genomics; Cancer Biomarkers |
| Rideout, Elizabeth | Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences | Sex differences; Metabolism; Cell Signaling Pathways; Development; Lifespan and Aging; Stress responses; Drosophila melanogaster |
| Robillard, Julie | Division of Neurology | Health sciences; Medical and biomedical engineering; Psychology and cognitive sciences; Patient experience/patient engagement; social media; Assistive technology; Neuroethics; Brain health technology; Artificial Intelligence; Dementia; mental health; Social robots; pediatrics |
| Robinson, Wendy | Department of Medical Genetics | Other basic medicine and life sciences; Medical Genetics; Early (prenatal) human development; Placenta; Epigenetics; DNA methylation; Sex differences; Mosaicism |
| Roland, Elke | Department of Pediatrics | Pediatric Neurology; Neurodevelopmental disorders; Developmental Neurology; Pediatric Neuroscience; Neurological diseases; Clinical Neurology; Neurological disorders |
| Roskelley, Calvin | Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences, School of Biomedical Engineering | Breast cancer, ovarian cancer |
| Rossi, Fabio | School of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Medical Genetics | Stem Cell Regenerative Medicine blood, Stem cells, regeneration, gene therapy, control of cell fate |
| Roth, Andrew | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Department of Computer Science | Bioinformatics; Cancer Evolution; Cancer omics data; computational statistics; Computational Biology; computational methods for studying clonal population structures and tumour evolution; Evolutionary cancer biology; genomics; Machine Learning; Methodological work in computational statistics; Molecular Oncology |
| Rothstein, Ralph | Department of Pediatrics | Pediatric Endocrinology |
| Russell, James | Critical Care Medicine | old world, Iron Age, Celtic, classical Greek, Roman and Byzantine art, archaeology, architecture, ancient Roman daily life and culture;Roman military organization early Christianity; magic in antiquity; Greek and Roman inscriptions and coins; Scottish and Irish archaeology; old world and classical architecture, archaeology and culture with emphasis on Western Europe and Middle East; Celtic (especially Ireland and Scotland); Greek and Roman, classical and Byzantine; Latin, Greek, Lallans and lowland Scots; Scottish literature; Robert Burns; Scottish poetry generally; ancient through early Islam, especially Turkey; Eastern Europe, New therapy for sepsis (severe infection), septic shock and acute lung injury, role of genetics of the inflammatory response in the critically ill |
| Ryan, Colm | Division of Respiratory Medicine | Respiratory Sleep Disorders; Investigation and treatment of obstructive sleep apnea |
| Ryerson, Christopher | Division of Respiratory Medicine | Interstitial lung disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema, dyspnea, pulmonary rehabilitation, symptom management, health care databases. |
| Ryu, Min Hyung | Division of Respiratory Medicine | Basic medicine and life sciences; Respiratory sciences; Transcriptomics; Bioinformatics, n.e.c.; Environmental Respiratory Diseases; Genomics and Transcriptomics; Bioinformatics and Data Science; Personalized Medicine in Respiratory Care; Application of Next-generation Sequencing |
| Sadar, Marianne | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Prostate Cancer; Drug development; transcriptional regulation |
| Sadarangani, Manish | Department of Pediatrics | Immunology; Microbiology; Clinical sciences; Antimicrobial resistant bacteria; Bacterial Vaccines; Childhood infections; Epidemiology; Immune System; Vaccine Development; Vaccine immunity; Clinical trials and observational studies |
| Sadovnick, Adele | Department of Medical Genetics | clinical genetic, genetic epidemiological and molecular genetic research |
| Sadowski, Ivan | Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology | Gene regulation contributing to cancer and HIV, and yeast, regulation of HIV-I latency and replication in T cells |
| Sakakibara, Brodie | Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy | Clinical medicine; Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy; Gerontology; rehabilitation; Physical Activity; Physical Rehabilitation; Stroke Rehabilitation; Chronic disease self-management and prevention; Telehealth in people with stroke and cardiovascular disease; Complex behavioural intervention development; Clinical trial methodologies; Participatory and patient-oriented research |
| Salh, Baljinder Singh | Division of Gastroenterology | Gastrointestinal Pathologies; Nutrition and Cancer; Inflammatory bowel disease; Colon cancer; Signal transduction |
| Salters, Kate | Division of Infectious Diseases | Improve health care engagement and health outcomes among people living with HIV, hepatitis C |
| Samuel, Susan | Department of Pediatrics | improving care and outcomes of children with chronic health conditions, kidney disease, nephrotic syndrome |
| Sanatani, Shubhayan | Department of Pediatrics | Arrhythmia; Sudden death, ion channelopathies, supraventricular tachycardia, autonomic nervous system |
| Sandford, Andrew | Division of Respiratory Medicine | genetic basis of asthma and has extended his studies to include the genetics of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and peanut allergy as well as the genetic basis of pulmonary disease severity in cystic fibrosis; potential effects on gene function of genetic variants associated with these disease outcomes |
| Savage, Kerry | Division of Medical Oncology | Lymphoma, lymphoid |
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. Yoon studied activity-regulated genes that are crucial in both the brain and pancreas for responding to the body's nutrient levels. Her findings showed the important role of a gene in the proper function of brain cells that control appetite and body weight, which highlighted new potential avenues of study for future obesity therapies. | Doctor of Philosophy in Cell and Developmental Biology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Lu's investigation looked at oncogenic splice errors in the human MET receptor. This receptor acts like an engine that drives cancer metastasis, and his results uncovered functional dependencies that can be targeted to properly shut it down. These findings can be translated to improve treatments for those battling advanced stages of lung cancer. | Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Oncology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Immune responses are crucial for protection against diseases. Dr. Pournia's research showed an unconventional role for a protein in various cellular processes that are important for development and responses of one of the cells of our immune system. These findings could be important for development and fine tuning of novel therapeutic approaches. | Doctor of Philosophy in Cell and Developmental Biology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Ip studied the development of children assessed for autism spectrum disorder. Dr. Ip found that, regardless of diagnosis, these children all had developmental differences compared to neurotypical children. The findings stress the importance of moving towards needs and function-based funding and services in school and in the community. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Cederberg interrogated the role of myeloid cells in the tumour microenvironment. Her dissertation work enhances our understanding of the interplay between innate and adaptive immune cells in solid tumours and identifies novel intervention points for the treatment of primary and metastatic disease. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Andrade-Rivas studies pollution in globalized food systems. Using systems thinking, planetary health, and geospatial sciences, he evaluated the nationwide risk of pesticide exposure and adverse birth outcomes in Ecuador. He also collaborated with the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, co-leading a marine toxicology study of their traditional food systems. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Thomson studied the mechanisms that regulate expression of the HTT gene that causes the neurodegenerative disorder Huntington's disease, and developed a method for improving the delivery of therapeutic nucleic acids to neurons. Her research informed the design of a new strategy for Huntington's disease treatment that targets its genetic origin. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Schaffner studied the role of epigenetics in Parkinson's disease. She found that rare and common genetic variation, lifestyle, and pesticide exposure were associated with DNA modifications in blood and brain. Her work highlights how molecular pathways to Parkinson's disease may differ between individuals. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Kamensek's research examined the reciprocal relationship between social interest, visual experience, and face recognition abilities in autism spectrum disorder. His findings challenge the notion of a singular cause for face recognition challenges in autism and may pave the way for potential interventions aimed at improving these abilities. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Bellwood developed a novel method to document current medical practices aimed at changing human behaviour and inform strategies to improve such practices using the example of prescribing physical activity in primary care. This method has a potential application beyond physical activity prescribing and beyond primary care in future research. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |