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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.
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. Hao's doctoral studies focused on how genetics can influence prostate cancer. He identified a gene that may drive the development of treatment-resistant prostate cancer. His work improves our understanding of the mechanism underlying the development of treatment resistance and provides a potential therapeutic target for this lethal disease. | Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Oncology (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Amenyogbe listened in on the conversation between gut microbes and the immune system in very young children. This revealed a complex and sophisticated information exchange that puts all social media platforms to shame. Now she is off to use the knowledge gained to improve crucial health outcomes. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Ghaedi's research sought to clarify the developmental pathways and complexity of an immune cell population in the lung called type 2 innate lymphoid cells. Her work will help to better understand how these cells develop and regulate allergic diseases. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Jones explored genetic and environmental factors that affect the risk of lymphoid cancers within families. She showed that early life factors that affect immune regulation and development are associated with lymphoid cancer onset in families. Her work has implications for the identification of risk factors for other familial diseases. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Toselli studied pancreatic beta-cell development and regeneration. She created a new model to study and track beta-cells and discovered important cues for beta-cell development and regeneration. Her work gives us a better understanding of pancreas biology and renewal. | Doctor of Philosophy in Cell and Developmental Biology (PhD) |
| 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) |