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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 |
|---|---|---|
| Webb, John | Divisions of Cardiology & Cardiovascular Surgery | Transcatheter interventional management of structural heart disease |
| Webber, Eric | Department of Surgery | Pediatric surgery, Surgical education, post-graduate medical education, pediatric gastric surgery, delivery of healthcare services, hepatology |
| Weber, Alexander | Department of Pediatrics | Neurocognitive patterns and neural networks; Central nervous system; Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI); Quantitative MRI; Brain Disorders; resting state functional MRI; myelin water imaging; Arterial Spin Labelling; Diffusion Tensor Imaging; Fractal based analysis; Concussion; Diagnostic Imaging; Epilepsy; Seizures; Traumatic Brain Injury; open science; Biomedical Engineering; Rett Syndrome |
| Weidberg, Hilla | Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences | Other basic medicine and life sciences; Cell Biology; Genetics; Biochemistry; molecular biology; Organelle biology; Mitochondria; Mitochondrial stress; Protein quality control; Metabolism; Neurodegenerative diseases |
| Wellington, Cheryl Lea | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Alzheimer disease; dementia; metabolism; cardiovascular system; neurodegeneration; concussion; traumatic brain injury (TBI) |
| Weng, Andrew | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Molecular biology |
| West, Christopher | Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences | Systems physiology; Animal physiology, circulation; Integrative physiology; Spinal cord injury; Animal models |
| Whittaker, Jacqueline | Department of Physical Therapy | Physical therapy; Exercise counselling; Exercise therapy; Health care; Kinesiology; Knee injuries; Knee osteoarthritis; Low back pain; Osteoarthritis prevention; Physical Activity; physical therapy; rehabilitation; Sport injury prevention; sports medicine; Sports/exercise; Ultrasound Imaging; Wearable activity tracker; youth |
| Wiens, Matthew | Global health; Sepsis; Prediction modelling; Epidemiology; Pediatric infectious diseases; Post-discharge outcomes; Global Health; Digital health | |
| Wiens, Matthew | Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics | Global health; Sepsis; Prediction modelling; Epidemiology; Pediatric infectious diseases; Post-discharge outcomes; Global Health; Digital health |
| Wilkie, James | ||
| Wilson, Kelly | ||
| Wilson, David | Department of Orthopaedics | orthopaedics, arthritis, mechanics, joints, hip, imaging, MRI, activity, Hip, knee, spine mechanics, causes and treatments of osteoarthritis, medical imaging and image processing, orthopedic sports medicine |
| Wiseman, Sam Michael | Department of Surgery | Surgical oncology, endocrine surgeyr, general surgery, clinic/translational research, education/teaching |
| Wong, Hubert | School of Population and Public Health | Health sciences; Public and population health; Biostatistical methods; Clinical trial design |
| Wood, Evan | Division of Social Medicine | Public and population health; Addiction; alcohol; Occupational Addiction Medicine; Epidemiology; Evidence-based care of Substance Use Disorders; opioids; Population health |
| Woodward, Todd | Department of Psychiatry | Cognitive neuropsychiatry and functional neuroimaging |
| Wright, Joanne | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Role of inflammation in the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, airways disease in asocation with mineral dusts and fumes, pulmonary vascular disease as a consequence of cigarette smoking, respiratory |
| Wyatt, Alexander | Department of Urologic Sciences | Medical, health and life sciences; Prostate Cancer; Circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA); Bladder cancer; Precision oncology; Clinical trials; Bioinformatics; Cancer Genomics; Cell-Free DNA (cfDNA); Correlative science; Liquid biopsy |
| Xiang, Qing-San | Department of Radiology | Magnetic Resonance Imaging |
| Xiong, Wei | Gastroenterology; Pathology; gastrointestinal disease; liver pathology; pancreatic pathology; Digital Pathology; quality assurance; green lab | |
| Yachie, Nozomu | School of Biomedical Engineering | |
| Yang, Dan Yang | ||
| Yassi, Annalee | School of Population and Public Health | occupational health, health of health workers, international health, global health, community-based research, capacity building, Latin America, evidence-based best practices, workplace injury and illness prevention, HIV and TB prevention and care for health workers, South Africa |
| Yatham, Lakshmi | Department of Psychiatry | Mood & Anxiety Disorders |
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. Kadhim found a new role for MED15, a protein that physically links DNA to proteins which regulate gene expression. His findings suggest that MED15 is critical to make mature, insulin secreting beta cells. Understanding how and why beta cells need MED15 to develop and mature will allow new treatments for diabetes. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Kolehmainen studied ketogenic diet and ketone ester supplementation as potential treatments in preclinical models of spinal cord injury. She demonstrated that a ketogenic diet can reduce certain features of inflammation underscoring the importance of nutritional interventions following spinal cord injury. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Boonpattrawong studied the impact of maternal obesity and exercise during pregnancy on the long-term health of the offspring using a mouse model. She discovered that maternal exercise improved the cardiometabolic health of the offspring and involved changes in cell-specific gene expression and DNA methylation patterns. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2020 | Have you ever avoided looking directly at someone in order to be polite? Dr. Dosso studied how we tailor our eye and body movements to send nonverbal social messages to others. She found that the brain's attention system plays a crucial role in social action, and this may help us to understand behaviour in different ages, cultures, and populations. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Docking studied acute myeloid leukemia, a blood-based cancer with very poor outcomes. Using genome sequencing technology, he developed a test that can determine whether patients are likely to respond to therapy, and identified patients who may respond to existing cancer drugs, which has the potential to significantly improve patient outcomes. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Yuskiv investigated management practices and treatment outcomes of phenylketonuria, a rare, treatable genetic metabolic disorder. She identified needs for improvement in the areas of diagnosis, management practices, treatment outcomes, and parental quality of life. Her work will benefit families with phenylketonuria. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Wadsworth found that unstable blood flow in solid tumours provides tumour cells with resistance to radiation therapy. His findings include that certain anti-hypertension drugs can be re-purposed to alter tumour development, eliminate these therapy resistant cells, and improve effectiveness of radiation therapy. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Held studied the cardiovascular responses to exercising on an underwater treadmill. He developed criteria for exercise testing, thermoregulation, and maximal and submaximal exercise prescription. His findings will advance the use of these specialized aquatic therapy pools to improve outcomes in health, training, and physical rehabilitation. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Finlay studied the markers of sustained success in high performance sports organisations, proposing two conceptual models on how leaders managed processes of change management and performance management. The research informs high performance sports organisations, and the leaders working within them, in relation to best practices in these areas. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Kumar examined the genetic mechanisms involved in chemotherapy resistance in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer. His research improves our understanding on how treatment resistance occurs and allow for the development of counteractive therapeutic alternatives. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |