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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 |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| Sawatzky, Bonita | Department of Orthopaedics | Clinical medicine; Mobility; Outcome measures; biomechanics; assistive devices; rare disease |
| Schaeffer, David | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Clinical oncology; Pathology (except oral pathology); Bioinformatics; cancer genetics; Cancer biology; Genomic rearrangements; genomics; Pancreas; Pathology; patient derived models |
| Schaffer, Paul | Department of Radiology | Positron Emission Tomography Imaging |
| Schechter, Martin | School of Population and Public Health | HIV/AIDS |
| Schmidt, Julia | Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy | Occupational therapy; Trauma / Injuries; cognition; Neurological diseases; Cognitive impairment; neuroscience; rehabilitation; Self-awareness; Self-identity; Traumatic Brain Injury |
| Schrader, Kasmintan | Department of Medical Genetics | Genomics & Bioinformatics, Clinical Genetics, Genetic Counselling and Ethics & Policy |
| Schreiber, William | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Porphyrias, toxicology, electrophoresis, educational technology, biochemistry, molecular biology |
| Schuetz, Christian | Department of Psychiatry | Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects; Addiction, Cognitive Control, Treatment; Psychology - Biological Aspects; Social and Cultural Psychiatry |
| Schultz, Kirk | Department of Pediatrics | Pediatric Cancer Blood and Marrow Transplantation Transplantation immunology Graft-versus-Host Disease Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Aplastic Anemia Myelodysplastic Syndrome, Oncology, immune system, childhood leukemia, blood and marrow transplatation, tumour immunology |
| Schwarz, Stephan | Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics | Analgesia, Pain, Pharmacology, Pain management, Anesthesiology, cardiovascular, medical imaging, nerve, artery, valve |
| Scott, Ian | Department of Family Practice | Recall Enhanced Learning; Impact of Learners on Quality of Care Medical student career choice; Clinical Decision Making; Curriculum Design; Science of learning/science of teaching; Photovoice |
| Scott, Alexander | Department of Physical Therapy | Physical therapy; Rehabilitation medicine; musculoskeletal; Musculoskeletal Lesions and Repair; orthopaedics; physical therapy; physiotherapy; sports medicine |
| Scott, David | Division of Medical Oncology | Lymphoid Cancer; Lymphoma Tumor; Lymphoma Biomarker; Determinants of treatment failure in B-cell lymphoid cancers (lymphoma and CLL); Treatment management; Lymphoma/Leukemia Molecular Profiling; Cancer Genomics |
| Scudamore, Charles | Department of Surgery | Pancreas, hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery, transplantation |
| Seamans, Jeremy | Department of Psychiatry | Schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder and addiction |
| Sellers, Stephanie | Divisions of Cardiology & Cardiovascular Surgery | |
| Seow, Chun Yong | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Biological and Biochemical Mechanisms; Asthma; Muscle; Respiratory System; Physiology; Airway smooth muscle; Contraction mechanism |
| Severin, Naomi | Clinical sciences | |
| Shadgan, Babak | Department of Orthopaedics | Medical biotechnology diagnostics (including biosensors); Biomedical instrumentation (including diagnostics); Orthopedics; Sports medicine; Bone, skin and cartilage science; Central nervous system; Implantable Biosensing; sensor and system design, clinical application development; Wearable Biosensors; design and application development in health care and exercise sciences; Musculoskeletal, Sports & Exercise Medicine; Bone Fracture Healing; Spinal Cord Injuries |
| Shahidi, Neal | Division of Gastroenterology | |
| Shahnaz, Navid | School of Audiology and Speech Sciences | Hearing, noise, audiology, ears, effect of personal listening devices (iPods) on hearing, hearing in infants and adults, high frequency thresholds, Diagnostic audiology, including multifrequency tympanometry and acoustic reflex studies in adults and newborns |
| Shahriari, Dena | Department of Orthopaedics, School of Biomedical Engineering |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Dr. Wang's research characterized the structure of the calmodulin protein, which is mutated in people who have heart rhythm disorders. Her findings demonstrate that each mutation causes disease through distinct mechanisms. This work will improve our understanding of heart rhythm disorders and their causes. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Min found that medical students' learning through Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) is a complex process influenced by interactions between factors related to the student, the assessment design, and the broader environment. These findings will assist educators in optimizing the learning that takes place through OSCEs. | Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy (MDPhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Hunter studied the impact of spinal cord injury on pelvic peripheral neurons and organs. She characterized changes in input and output neurons supplying pelvic organs, and differences in bladder activity following high and low transections. This work paves the way for the treatment of important secondary consequences of spinal cord injury. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Carney studied the safety of medications commonly used to aid smoking cessation. He also developed a novel method of evaluating comparative effectiveness using health claims data. The results of his thesis will aid physicians, patients, and policy-makers to make informed choices regarding smoking cessation pharmacotherapy. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmacology (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. York examined how metabolic reprogramming shapes the brain's immune system. Both her results and methodological contributions to the research community have provided a clearer understanding of the link between cellular metabolism and the immune state of the brain. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Sriram studied structures termed tubulobulbar complexes, which are involved in removing cell-to-cell attachments during sperm development in the mammalian testis. She developed methods in culture and in vivo to test the hypothesis that these complexes are involved in the movement of the next generation of sperm cells within the testis. | Doctor of Philosophy in Cell and Developmental Biology (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Smith-Dijak demonstrated that processes regulating the stability of brain cell function are disrupted in Huntington disease, and can be restored by treatment with drugs that stimulate the sigma-1 receptor. This helps us better understand the processes underlying neurodegenerative diseases and how to treat them. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Takai investigated orthographic processing in the brain. He found that the brain is a system for symbol processing that keeps becoming faster, more specific and efficient than processing unfamiliar visual symbols throughout adulthood. These results assist learners of an additional language in our multicultural society. | Doctor of Philosophy in Audiology and Speech Sciences (PhD) |
| 2019 | Polycystic ovary syndrome, known as PCOS, affects up to 18% of women worldwide. Dr. Cutler examined the impact of nutrition on the metabolic, reproductive and mental health of women. Her findings support the need for more comprehensive treatment options for PCOS. | Doctor of Philosophy in Reproductive and Developmental Sciences (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Rafn's research focused on delivery of rehabilitation for women with breast cancer. She provided insight into the experiences and preferences for delivery, and developed resources to support self-managed detection and rehabilitation of issues. This work may improve early detection, access to care, and prevent the development of chronic issues. | Doctor of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Sciences (PhD) |