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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 |
|---|---|---|
| Stuart, Gavin | Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology | Medicine |
| Subramaniam, Sriram | Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology | Medical, health and life sciences; cryo-EM; cryo-electron microscopy; Cryoelectron Microscopy; Scanning Electron Microscopy; Advanced Electron Microscopy; drug discovery; Drug-design; Focused ion beams; Electron tomography; Tomography; Single particle imaging; Single particle analysis; structural bioinformatics; Structural Biology; COVID-19 therapeutic design |
| Sutherland, Jason | School of Population and Public Health | Health care effectiveness and outcomes; Health care administration; Access to care; Healthcare costs; Health systems; Patient-Reported Outcomes; Quality; Surgery |
| Swindale, Nicholas Vaughan | Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences | Bioinformatics; Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects; Eye and Visual System Diseases; Neuronal Modeling; Neuronal Systems; Visual System |
| Takei, Fumio | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Molecular immunology, cancer, cell-cell interactions |
| Talhouk, Aline | Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology | Human reproduction and development sciences; Computer Science and Statistics; Epidemiology; Bioinformatics; Cancer of the Reproductive System; diagnostic models; Digital health; Machine Learning; personalized medicine; prevention; Privacy |
| Tam, Roger | School of Biomedical Engineering | Machine learning; Biomedical signal processing; Biomedical Design and Innovation; Biomedical Technologies; Computer Science and Statistics; Data Analytics; Medical Imaging; Machine Learning; Neurodegenerative diseases; Precision Medicine; Radiology |
| Tamber, Mandeep | Department of Surgery | epilepsy surgery; Craniofacial disorders; Craniofacial abnormalities; Craniofacial surgery; Hydrocephalus; Management of complex hydrocephalus; Endoscopic management of hydrocephalus |
| Tanentzapf, Guy | Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences | How cell adhesion contributes to muscle function, and stem cell biology |
| Tang, Tricia | Division of Endocrinology | Diabetes; Behavioral and Psychosocial Issues associated with Diabetes Self-management. |
| Taubert, Stefan | Department of Medical Genetics | Other health sciences; Gene regulation and expression; Transcriptomics; Genomics; Aging; beta cells; C. elegans; Diabetes; Gene Regulation and Expression; Gene regulation; Genetics of Aging; genomics; Hypoxia; Metabolism; Molecular Genetics; Mouse; stress; Stress and Cancer; Stress responses; Toxin and Toxicant Metabolism; Transcription |
| Taylor, Steven | Department of Psychiatry | Anxiety disorders, stress, posttraumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, health anxiety, hypochondriasis, psychotherapy, cognitive-behavior therapy, mental disorders, psychiatric diagnosis |
| Taylor, David | Department of Surgery | Medical, health and life sciences; Vascular surgery and diseases |
| Tebbutt, Scott | Division of Respiratory Medicine | Basic medicine and life sciences; Dual organism molecular interaction (fungal spores & human airway epithelium); Early and late reactions in allergic asthma and rhinitis; Diagnostics of acute heart rejection post-transplantation; Neonatal vaccine immunogenicity; Systems biology, biomarkers & bioinformatics; Rheumatic fever and heart disease; COVID-19 |
| Teichman, Joel | Department of Urologic Sciences | Endourology and interstitial cystitis; Kidney stones; Holmium:YAG lithotripsy; Development of optical fibers; Laser lithotripsy; Femtosecond laser ablation |
| Teves, Sheila | Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology | Biochemistry; Genomics; Epigenetics; Genetics; Genome Science; Molecular Epigenetics (MEG); molecular biology; Transcriptional memory and cellular identity in mouse embryonic stem cells |
| Thompson, Wade | Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics | Health services and systems; ensuring older persons are taking medications that are a good fit; deprescribing; polypharmacy |
| Ti, Lianping | Division of Social Medicine | Epidemiology; Community Health / Public Health; Artificial Intelligence; Drug Abuse; Health Policies; Substance Use; Harm reduction; Public health; Health Services; Administrative data; data science |
| Tomek, Jennifer | Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology | Perinatal epidemiology ; Perinatal research methods; Fetal growth restriction; Severe maternal morbidity; Improving the reference charts used to assess fetal growth and maternal weight gain in pregnancy; Evaluating the impact of obstetrical health care policies on maternal and infant health; Developing clinical prediction models for the identification of adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes |
| Towle, Angela | Department of Medicine | active involvement of patients and lay people from the community in the education of health professionals to advance understanding of the role patients can play in student learning and the long-term impact. |
| Traboulsee, Tony | Division of Neurology | Neurology; Central nervous system; Biomedical signal processing; Machine learning; Imaging; magnetic resonance imaging; multiple sclerosis; neuromyelitls optica (NMO) |
| Tran, Eric | , | |
| Tremlett, Helen | Division of Neurology | Epidemiology (except nutritional and veterinary epidemiology); multiple sclerosis; Neuroepidemiology; Pharmacoepidemiology; prodrome,; Drug safety and effectiveness; Pharmacogenomics; comorbidities; health administrative data; Gut microbiome; prodromes |
| Tsang, Teresa | Divisions of Cardiology & Cardiovascular Surgery | Epidemiology and pathophysiology of atrial fibrillation; application of advanced echocardiographic techniques for prediction of pre-clinical cardiovascular disease |
| Turvey, Stuart | Department of Pediatrics | Immunology; Microbiology; Asthma; Immune System; Immunodeficiencies; Microbiome cohort studies; Precision Medicine; Primary Immune Deficiencies |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Dr. Ouyang showed how the number of participants needed in a clinical trial can be reduced by making use of information from outside the trial, by changing how people are assigned to the treatment groups, and by improving the way the data are analyzed. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Ye studied the genetic architecture of strabismus, more commonly known as crossed eyes. She identified the likely causal gene in a large family with a history of strabismus, multiple biological pathways, and the involvement of the central nervous system. This research advanced the understanding of strabismus pathology and may improve patient care. | Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy (MDPhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Ramzy studied the role that the hormone insulin plays in the development of insulin-producing beta-cells. He examined a gene therapy approach to treat diabetes and subsequently developed a new theory on how beta-cells produce mature insulin. This work revises a decades old dogma and provides insight into new treatment avenues for diabetes. | Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy (MDPhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Lake studied the therapeutic and harm reduction applications of cannabis among marginalized people who use illicit drugs in Vancouver. Through demonstrating that cannabis has clinical potential for managing pain and opioid use disorder in this population, her work provided key data to inform future clinical experimentation involving cannabis. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. McDiarmid investigated the function of genes and functional impact of genetic variants implicated in Autism Spectrum Disorder. By developing gene editing methods to insert variants into an animal model and quantifying the effects on brain and behavior using machine vision, Dr. McDiarmid identified deficits in habituation as a common impairment. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Louie studied the walking recovery process after stroke. He specifically examined the use of robotic exoskeleton technology for clinical stroke rehabilitation. His research informs physical therapy practice and offers guidance on selecting appropriate patients with stroke and treatment parameters for this novel therapeutic technology. | Doctor of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Sciences (PhD) |
| 2021 | Belonging is an essential human need. Through relationship and research, Dr. Bulk elucidated how belonging develops in places of learning, teaching, and working; deepened understanding of being blind and belonging; expanded upon how communities can co-create belonging; and highlighted scholarly teaching through research-based theatre. | Doctor of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Sciences (PhD) |
| 2021 | Finding and understanding new ways to target cancer is crucial for developing successful treatment strategies. Dr. Wang's research focused on optimizing a new anti-cancer therapy based on a malaria protein that targets unique glycan modifications on cancer. His work provided knowledge that will aid the design of novel drug conjugates. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Dancsok investigated the immune response to agressive cancers of the bone or soft tissues known as sarcomas. Her findings were used to help design clinical trials for sarcoma patients receiving a new type of cancer treatment called immune therapy, which works by igniting an immune system attack on cancer cells. | Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy (MDPhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Yang studied how bacterial enzymes have evolved the ability to degrade novel man-made pesticides. She identified the key mutations responsible for the acquirement of the new function, and uncovered how these mutations change protein structure and function. Her research contributes to our understanding of protein evolution. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |