Kaitlin Gairdner
Master of Physical Therapy (MPT)
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 |
---|---|---|
Cembrowski, Mark Steven | Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences | Molecular neuroscience; Mathematical modelling and simulation; Mechanisms of memory in the brain; Anxiety; Big Data; Bioinformatics; Cell types; Computation; CRISPR-Cas9; Fear; Genetics; modeling; Neural circuits; neuroscience; Neuroscience of memory; PTSD; RNAseq |
Chakrabarty, Trisha | Department of Psychiatry | Cognitive dsyfunction; Virtual reality cognitive retraining; Bipolarity; Psychotherapy approaches for mood disorders |
Chan, Fat-Chung | ||
Charlton, Julia | Critical care medicine and emergency medicine; Neonatology; Fetal development and medicine; Neonatal neurology; neurodevelopment; Congenital Anomalies; Neonatal cardiac care | |
Cheifetz, Rona | Department of Surgery | Surgical oncology; Education |
Chen, Chia-Lu | ||
Cherkasov, Artem | Department of Urologic Sciences | Drug design; Bioinformatics, Molecular modeling; Proteomics; Artificial intelligence; Antibiotics |
Cheung, Karen | School of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering | Electrical engineering, computer engineering, and information engineering; Medical and biomedical engineering; additive manufacturing; BioMEMS; Biomedical Technologies; biosensors; microfluidics; neural interfaces; organ-on-chip; Tissue Engineering |
Chew, Ben | Department of Urologic Sciences | how kidney stones form and in particular intestinal absorption of minerals that can form kidney stones (calcium and oxalate); genetically modifying bacteria normally used to make yogurt to express a naturally occurring enzyme that breaks down oxalate, thus preventing its absorption into the body where it can combine with calcium to form kidney stones. |
Chi, Kim Nguyen | Division of Medical Oncology | Thrombosis in cancer patients, methemoglobinemia, hemolysis, anticancer drugs, prostate cancer, chemotherapy, cell cancer, breast cancer |
Chia, Stephen K.L. | Division of Medical Oncology | Cancer; translational research in breast cancer |
Chin, Chris | , | |
Choi, Peter Tsz Lung | Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics | Anesthesiology, peroperative medicine, randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews, research education |
Christenson, James | Department of Emergency Medicine | Other clinical medicine; sudden cardiac death; chain of survival; out of hospital cardiac arrest; emergency medical services; resuscitation science |
Churg, Andrew | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Lung disease |
Cibere, Jolanda | Division of Rheumatology | Rheumatology; early osteoarthritis; magnetic resonance imaging in osteoarthritis; biomarkers in osteoarthritis; progression of early osteoarthritis; clinical detection of early osteoarthritis |
Ciernia, Annie | Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology | Biochemistry; Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects; Autism; Brain development; Epigenetics; Gene-Environment Interactions; Neurodevelopmental disorders |
Cimolai, Nevio | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Infection control, ethics in hospital administration and public medical institutions |
Ciocca, Valter | School of Audiology and Speech Sciences | Auditory System; Perception and Representation; Recognition of Speech; Speech and Language Development Disorders; Auditory grouping of speech and non-speech sounds, also known as "auditory scene analysis"; perception and production of normal and disordered speech |
Collet, Jean-Paul | Clinical sciences, n.e.c.; Stress measurement - stress management -; Child development - children with neurodevelopment disability | |
Collins, Colin | Department of Urologic Sciences | translational genomics where mathematics, genomics, computer science, and clinical science converge in diagnostics and therapeutics |
Colozzo, Paola | School of Audiology and Speech Sciences | Developmental language disorders; language and cognition; discourse, assessment and intervention for children with diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds |
Conibear, Elizabeth | Department of Medical Genetics | Other basic medicine and life sciences; Protein trafficking in cell biology; Molecular genetics; Functional genomics; Membranes; Enzymes and Proteins; Vesicle Trafficking; Molecular Genetics; Neurodegenerative diseases; Protein Palmitoylation; Cell Signaling and Cancer |
Conway, Edward | Division of Hematology | Basic medicine and life sciences; coagulation; Innate immunity; Inflammation; vascular biologh |
Cook, Laura | Cellular immunology; Regulatory T cells; CD4+ T cells; Immunology; Infectious disease; Immune memory; Immune tolerance |
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. 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) |
2023 | Dr. Cui delved into the escalating drug overdose epidemic involving opioid and methamphetamine use. Her research emphasizes the crucial need for comprehensive and integrated treatment and harm reduction strategies to address both opioid and methamphetamine use. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Shortill explored mechanisms of intracellular protein sorting using a budding yeast model. His work led to the identification of the VINE complex, a previously unknown endosomal assembly with similarity to the neurodegeneration-linked retromer complex. These results pave the way for a more complete understanding of endosomal function. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Mohanna worked towards developing a CRISPR gene therapy for the childhood blindness aniridia. She created a mouse model for this disease and subsequently tested two delivery systems. She showed that a non-pathogenic virus successfully targets the affected cells in the eye and can be used for developing a gene therapy for aniridia in the future. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Farivar has designed a laser device that can deploy the heat to the tumor precisely, kill cancer cells and activate immune system minimizing damage to the surrounding tissue.She tested the device in a bladder cancer model in mouse and showed that the heat combined with immune stimulating drugs can decrease tumor growth and increase survival. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Akinlaja adapted proteomics methods towards understanding the infectious processes of a pathogen of the honey bee midgut. Her work provides new insight into how host protein expression and interactions are altered by pathogen infection, and identifies candidate proteins that could be potential therapeutic targets in the resulting disease. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |
2023 | Using lipid nanoparticle technology, Dr. Leung uncovered novel methods to genetically modify platelets and discovered strategies to improve the efficacy of nanoparticles. His research brings us one step closer to better transfusion products while advancing our understanding of lipid nanoparticles. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |