Pardis Kazemian
Master of Science in Medical Genetics (MSc)
Lipid nanoparticle-mediated delivery of CRISPR gene therapy to the brain
Review details about the recently announced changes to study and work permits that apply to master’s and doctoral degree students. Read more
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 |
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Giaschi, Deborah | Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences | Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects; Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; amblyopia; reading; dyslexia; motion perception; binocular vision; visual development |
Gibson, William | Department of Medical Genetics | Genetic medicine; Genetic Diseases; Chromosomes: Structure / Organization; Epigenetics |
Gilbert, Mark | School of Population and Public Health | Public and population health; Development, implementation, evaluation and scale-up of innovative sexual health programs; Gay men’s sexual health, including sexual health literacy; Synergistic and integrated dynamics of infectious diseases, mental illness and other conditions |
Gill, John | Division of Nephrology | Clinical outcomes in kidney transplant patients; Access to kidney transplantation; Living donor transplantation; Cardiovascular risk in transplant patients |
Gill, Sharlene | Division of Medical Oncology | Colorectal cancer, hepatobiliary malignancies, pancreatic cancer, phase II/III clinical trials, health outcomes research |
Gill, Jagbir | Division of Nephrology | Kidney transplantation; Organ donation; Clinical epidemiology |
Gleave, Martin | Department of Urologic Sciences | Infectious diseases, interdisciplinary oncology, prostate |
Glegg, Stephanie | Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy | Child Development; Children's Health; Developmental Disabilities; Exercise for Children; Health services research; Opioid Abuse and Addiction; rehabilitation; Translational Medical Research; Knowledge translation |
Goerges, Matthias | Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics | Electronic health (e-Health); Health information systems (including surveillance); Expert systems technologies in artificial intelligence; Anesthesiology; Medical devices; Human-computer systems and interface; Bio-signal processing and analysis; Digital health; predictive analytics; decision support systems; Critical Care Medicine; Biomedical Technologies; Health Care Technologies; Human Computer Interaction and Design; Medical informatics; Software Development; patient-oriented research; Data sharing / open data |
Goldenberg, S Larry | Department of Urologic Sciences | prostate cancer, men’s health issues |
Goldman, Ran | Department of Pediatrics | Evidence to Innovation; Pediatric Research in Emergency Therapeutics (PRETx) Program |
Gonzalez-Montaner, Julio Sergio | Division of Infectious Diseases | Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, development of antiretroviral therapies and management strategies |
Gourlay, William | Department of Urologic Sciences | renal transplantation |
Granville, David | Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | Autoimmunity; Medical molecular engineering of nucleic acids and proteins; Proteases; Granzymes; Extracellular matrix; Chronic inflammation; Aging; Disease models; Autoimmune disease; Skin; Vascular biology |
Greenblatt, Ethan | Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology | |
Gregory-Evans, Cheryl | Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences | Tissue fusion during development, Aniridia, retinal therapeutics |
Gregory-Evans, Kevin | Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences | retina, stem cells, gene therapy, retinitis pigmentosa, macular degeneration, age-related macular degeneration, Stargardt’s disease, Best’s disease, x-linked retinoschisis, electroretinography., Eye, novel molcular approaches in the treatment of retinal disease, cell-based therapeutics ofr age-related macular degenration and retinitis pigmentosa, molecular defects underlying retinal disease |
Greidanus, Nelson | Department of Orthopaedics | osteoarthritis and joint replacement procedures |
Greyson, Devon | School of Population and Public Health | Health-related information practices of youth, parents, and families; Intersection between information practices and health behavior,; Cannabis use decision making in pregnancy and lactation; Vaccine confidence and decision making about vaccination; Disinformation in social media support communities; Online communication among young parents |
Griesdale, Donald E | Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics, Department of Medicine | Neurocritical care, traumatic brain injury, invasive neuromonitoring, airway management |
Grunau, Ruth V | Department of Pediatrics | Biobehavioural regulation, brain and neurodevelopment in premature infants and children, Long-term effects of neonatal pain on stress regulation, brain, behavior, neurodevelopment, Infant pain and stress, Parenting stress, parent-infant interaction |
Grunau, Brian | Department of Emergency Medicine | Anaphylaxis and allergic reactions in the emergency department; Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, resuscitation and E-CPR; Pre-hospital care |
Grzybowski, Stefan | Department of Family Practice | preconception care; prenatal care; rural obstetric outcomes |
Gsponer, Joerg | Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Michael Smith Laboratories | Protein-DNA, protein-RNA and protein-protein interactions |
Guenette, Jordan | Department of Physical Therapy | Respiratory diseases; Other biological sciences; Clinical exercise physiology; Cardiorespiratory physiology; Mechanisms and management of breathlessness and exercise intolerance; Chronic respiratory 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 |
---|---|---|
2023 | Dr. Lapointe extensively employed various DNA sequencing technologies to gain deeper insights into anti-viral drug resistance and the molecular epidemiology of HIV, HCV, and SARS-CoV-2. His research has significantly advanced our understanding of viral public health dynamics, and heloed shape the local and national clinical management guidelines. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Sheth investigated the neural correlates of two distinct types of dynamic patterns freely-moving and goal-driven present in the stream of thought. Her findings offer new insights into the functions of the default and executive networks of brain and have implications for mental health, spontaneous thought, mind-wandering, and creativity. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Rufenach studied the biophysical interactions and three-dimensional structures of protein complexes involved in calcium signaling pathways. Her research has contributed to understanding the mechanisms of skeletal muscle contraction and rare neuromuscular diseases. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Francis mapped the dynamics of antibiotic resistance gene carriage in the healthy newborn infant gut and characterized changes in response to severe acute malnutrition and HIV, in low-resource settings. His findings have major implications for antibiotic prophylaxis, therapy and stewardship practices in global neonatal and infant populations. | Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Desai revealed that despite better CF prognosis in recent years, people with CF still face substantial burden from lung impairment and other complications. Rising healthcare costs due to expensive medications pose additional challenges. These findings will help improve their service planning and resource allocation in the future. | Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Dellazizzo Toth developed imaging techniques and technologies enabling rapid recording of all activity across a complete neural arbor in an awake animal and applied these tools to interrogate how individual neurons are modified by experience. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
2023 | Millions of undiscovered viruses circulate in wildlife and many of them threaten to spillover into humans and livestock, causing outbreaks and pandemics. Dr. Kuchinski developed new genome sequencing techniques for discovering these threats and monitoring their spread. These tools will help protect our health and livelihoods from these viruses. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Carlaw's research helped improve the efficacy of therapeutic CRISPR Cas9 base editing for the treatment of previously incurable childhood genetic diseases. Her research helped establish some of the first reporter models for studying base editors and paved the way for the next generation of lipid nanoparticle delivered gene editors. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Cyrus' work focused on the Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 syndromes, where she expanded the clinical phenotype of the most recently described syndrome: SUZ-12 Related Overgrowth. She further used Drosophila melanogaster to develop assays that can tell us if human genetic variants of interest can cause these syndromes or not. | Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Lu studied the function of a major autism risk gene neurexin-1, showing that losing one copy of this molecule leads to significant synaptic deficits. He subsequently used gene-editing technology to rescue these impairments by altering how neurexin-1 RNA is processed, identifying a potential therapeutic strategy for neuropsychiatric patients. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |