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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 |
|---|---|---|
| 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) |
| 2019 | Dr. Yao used machine learning and advanced statistical models to study the acute health effect of air pollution. She discovered that ambulance calls for heart, lung and diabetic conditions increased within hours of exposure to wildfire smoke. Her findings can help protect public health from the growing impacts of wildfire smoke under climate change. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2019 | Clinical guidelines should be informed by the latest evidence and analytic methods. Dr. Kanters used new methods to support the World Health Organization HIV guidelines, informing the change of the recommended first-line treatment. This research also showed that newer methods using more complex data do not always improve guideline development. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
| 2019 | Half of our DNA is self-replicating, "jumping genes" called transposable elements (TEs), a fifth of which are genetic fossils of ancient retroviruses. Dr. Babaian explored how these normally repressed viral genes are resurrected in human cancers, and how this re-activation drives the evolution of novel cancer-promoting genes. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Lardizabal developed a new prostate cancer mouse model that can effectively and efficiently test new drugs and therapies against prostate cancer. His contribution can potentially provide prostate cancer patients with more treatment options by getting proven effective drugs and therapies into clinical trials faster. | Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Oncology (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Maestre led the first human clinical study to provide evidence of respiratory and systemic adverse effects of phthalate inhalation in susceptible populations. Phthalates are chemicals linked to detrimental health effects, but their use remains unrestricted. This research can assist regulatory agencies and potentially influence policy. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |