Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD)

Overview

The UBC Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine offers a remarkable opportunity to study with numerous world renowned faculty and research programs. We are recognized as national and international leaders in both basic and clinical research. Experimental Pathology refers to research in any area of biomedical investigation that is relevant to human disease. Since it is necessary to understand the normal working of the system to fully define the changes associated with disease, the areas represented at UBC cover a wide range of fields and approaches. Work at all levels of biological organization is involved, from protein to lipoprotein biochemistry and molecular biology through cell and tumour biology, animal models for studies on pulmonary and cardiovascular pathophysiology and viral and bacterial infection processes, to clinical studies on human population and the AIDS epidemic.

We train students with varied backgrounds in science and medicine including: biochemistry, physiology, cell biology and microbiology/immunology.

We are committed to effective, cutting-edge, ethical research. The results of which will reach beyond the academic realm to effect positive change in the lives of our families, communities and, ultimately, our world.

For specific program requirements, please refer to the departmental program website

$40,000

Minimum funding per year^*

Average years to completion

I have always been inquisitive and passionate about scientific research. UBC’s commitment to skin research initiatives presents a great opportunity to further the limited understanding of this critical organ.

Katlyn Richardson

Quick Facts

Faculty Faculty of Medicine

Academic Unit Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine

Specialization Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Mode of delivery In person at UBC Vancouver

Program Components Dissertation

Tuition (First Year) Domestic: 5,738.52 | International: 10,081.65

Median Funding 50% of students receive $43,906 or more funding in each of the first four years, before tuition and fees

Tuition & Financial Support

Tuition

Fees	Canadian Citizen / Permanent Resident / Refugee / Diplomat	International
Application Fee	$118.50	$168.25
Tuition *
Installments per year	3	3
Tuition per installment	$1,912.84	$3,360.55
Tuition per year (plus annual increase, usually 2%-5%)	$5,738.52	$10,081.65
Int. Tuition Award (ITA) per year (for eligible individuals)		$3,200.00 (-)
Other Fees and Costs
Student Fees (yearly)	$1,169.35 (approx.)
Costs of living	Estimate your costs of living with our interactive tool in order to start developing a financial plan for your graduate studies.

* Regular, full-time tuition. For on-leave, extension, continuing or part time (if applicable) fees see UBC Calendar.
All fees for the year are subject to adjustment and UBC reserves the right to change any fees without notice at any time, including tuition and student fees. Tuition fees are reviewed annually by the UBC Board of Governors. In recent years, tuition increases have been 2% for continuing domestic students and between 2% and 5% for continuing international students. New students may see higher increases in tuition. Admitted students who defer their admission are subject to the potentially higher tuition fees for incoming students effective at the later program start date. In case of a discrepancy between this webpage and the UBC Calendar, the UBC Calendar entry will be held to be correct.

Financial Support

Applicants to UBC have access to a variety of funding options, including merit-based (i.e. based on your academic performance) and need-based (i.e. based on your financial situation) opportunities.

Program Funding Packages

All full-time students who begin a UBC-Vancouver PhD program in September 2026 or later will be provided with a funding package of at least $40,000 for each of the first four years of their PhD. The funding package may consist of any combination of internal or external awards, teaching-related work, research assistantships, and graduate academic assistantships. Included in this funding is Program-provided tuition funding of up to $2,000.00 per year for each of the first four years of the PhD. Please note that some graduate programs provide funding packages that are greater than $40,000 total per year. Please check with your prospective graduate program for specific details of the funding provided to its PhD students.

Funding Statistics

Please note that effective September 2026, UBC’s guaranteed funding for full-time PhD students in years 1-4 was raised significantly, to a minimum of $40,000 per year. These historical statistics do not account for this change, i.e., the funding landscape for incoming students is not necessarily comparable to the historical values.

Based on the criteria outlined below, 28 students within this program were included in this study because they received funding through UBC in the form of teaching, research, academic assistantships or internal or external awards with a mean of $44,324 and a median of $43,906.

This results in a net balance (any funding provided to the student minus tuition and fees) mean of $37,313 and median of $36,214.

6 students received Teaching Assistantships. Median TA funding based on 6 students was $7,530.
24 students received Research Assistantships. Median RA funding based on 24 students was $19,141.
5 students received Academic Assistantships. Median AA funding based on 5 students was $1,682.
28 students received internal awards. Median internal award funding based on 28 students was $3,360.
15 students received external awards. Median external award funding based on 15 students was $30,000.

Study Period: Sep 2024 to Aug 2025 - funding for full-time PhD students enrolled in three terms per academic year in this program across years 1-4, the period covered by UBC's Minimum Funding Guarantee. Mean and median values might mask variability in sources and amounts of funding received by individual students. Beyond year 4, funding packages become even more individualized.
Review methodology

Scholarships & awards (merit-based funding)

All applicants are encouraged to review the awards listing to identify potential opportunities to fund their graduate education. The database lists merit-based scholarships and awards and allows for filtering by various criteria, such as domestic vs. international or degree level.

Graduate Research Assistantships (GRA)

Many professors are able to provide Research Assistantships (GRA) from their research grants to support full-time graduate students studying under their supervision. The duties constitute part of the student's graduate degree requirements. A Graduate Research Assistantship is considered a form of fellowship for a period of graduate study and is therefore not covered by a collective agreement. Stipends vary widely, and are dependent on the field of study and the type of research grant from which the assistantship is being funded.

Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTA)

Graduate programs may have Teaching Assistantships available for registered full-time graduate students. Full teaching assistantships involve 12 hours work per week in preparation, lecturing, or laboratory instruction although many graduate programs offer partial TA appointments at less than 12 hours per week. Teaching assistantship rates are set by collective bargaining between the University and the Teaching Assistants' Union.

Graduate Academic Assistantships (GAA)

Academic Assistantships are employment opportunities to perform work that is relevant to the university or to an individual faculty member, but not to support the student’s graduate research and thesis. Wages are considered regular earnings and when paid monthly, include vacation pay.

Financial aid (need-based funding)

Canadian and US applicants may qualify for governmental loans to finance their studies. Please review eligibility and types of loans.

All students may be able to access private sector or bank loans.

UBC has working agreements with MPower Financing - an organization providing international students with no-cosigner, no-collateral education loans to study in Canada - and Windmill Microlending - an organization providing loans to skilled immigrants.

Foreign government scholarships

Many foreign governments provide support to their citizens in pursuing education abroad. International applicants should check the various governmental resources in their home country, such as the Department of Education, for available scholarships.

Working while studying

The possibility to pursue work to supplement income may depend on the demands the program has on students. It should be carefully weighed if work leads to prolonged program durations or whether work placements can be meaningfully embedded into a program.

International students enrolled as full-time students with a valid study permit can work on campus for unlimited hours and work off-campus for no more than 24 hours a week during academic sessions.

A good starting point to explore student jobs is the UBC Work Learn program or a Co-Op placement.

Tax credits and RRSP withdrawals

Students with taxable income in Canada may be able to claim federal or provincial tax credits.

Canadian residents with RRSP accounts may be able to use the Lifelong Learning Plan (LLP) which allows students to withdraw amounts from their registered retirement savings plan (RRSPs) to finance full-time training or education for themselves or their partner.

Please review Filing taxes in Canada on the student services website for more information.

Cost Estimator

Applicants have access to the cost estimator to develop a financial plan that takes into account various income sources and expenses.

Enrolment, Duration & Other Stats

These statistics show data for the Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD). Data are separated for each degree program combination. You may view data for other degree options in the respective program profile.

ENROLMENT DATA

	2025	2024	2023	2022	2021
Applications	8	9	6	9	9
Offers	4	6	1	2	2
New Registrations	3	5	1	2	2
Total Enrolment	38	36	34	34	33

Completion Rates and Times

This program has a graduation rate of 84.8% based on 38 students admitted between 2012 - 2015. Based on 28 graduating students from the 2012 - 2015 admissions cohort the minimum time to completion is 3.7 years and the maximum time is 7 years with an average of 5.2 years of study. All calculations exclude leave times.

Disclaimer

Admissions data refer to all UBC Vancouver applications, offers, new registrants for each registration year, May to April, e.g. data for 2022 refers to programs starting in 2022 Summer and 2022 Winter session, i.e. May 1, 2022 to April 30, 2023. Data on total enrolment reflects enrolment in Winter Session Term 1 and are based on snapshots taken on November 1 of each registration year. Program completion data are only provided for datasets comprised of more than 4 individuals. Graduation rates exclude students who transfer out of their programs. Rates and times of completion depend on a number of variables (e.g. curriculum requirements, student funding), some of which may have changed in recent years for some programs.

Doctoral Exams Upcoming

Doctoral Citations

A doctoral citation summarizes the nature of the independent research, provides a high-level overview of the study, states the significance of the work and says who will benefit from the findings in clear, non-specialized language, so that members of a lay audience will understand it.

Year	Citation
2025	Dr. Richardson’s research focused on Granzyme K, a previously understudied enzyme now linked to chronic inflammatory diseases. She established a role for Granzyme K in psoriasis, uncovering how it promotes disease development in skin. Her work redefines the biological function of Granzyme K and sets the stage for future therapeutic innovation.
2024	Dr. Lauener optimally expanded and comprehensively characterized a rare cellular population of human regulatory natural killer cells. She deciphered multiple methods to obtain clinically relevant numbers, while harnessing their immunosuppressive properties as a novel therapy for chronic graft-versus-host disease, and other autoimmune conditions.
2024	Dr. Li and collaborators analyzed the DNA mutational patterns in two types of B cell lymphomas and found mutations that alter distinct biological signaling pathways. His findings may help guide future treatment strategies to improve lymphoma patient care.
2024	Dr. Islamzada studied Red Blood Cell deformability as a potential biomarker for longevity of blood transfusions, and showed how cell deformability is critical for allowing red blood cells to remain in circulation. Her findings may help identify donors who can provide long lasting red blood cells that could be beneficial to chronic transfusion recipients.
2024	Dr. Bahreyni investigated the use of microRNA-modified Coxsackievirus B3 (miR-CVB3) in breast cancer treatment. His research explored how combining miR-CVB3 with immune-enhancers and advanced delivery methods might offer improvements in therapy. Dr. Bahreyni's work provides useful insights into potential strategies for enhancing cancer treatment.
2024	Dr. Tegegn's research explores, at a molecular level, how the dengue virus, one of the world’s most prevalent pathogens, causes life-threatening bleeding. During infection, dengue hijacks platelets and their parent cells, marking them with signals that lead to depletion. Her findings offer a novel treatment target for dengue hemorrhagic fever.
2024	Dr. Smith found that specific HIV medications cause damage to human embryonic stem cells cultured in a dish. These findings strongly suggest that certain HIV medications are safer than others for a developing baby during pregnancy and may help inform and guide future human trials for the safest treatment of HIV in women of reproductive age.
2024	Dr. Li studied the functional roles of a cell adhesion receptor, integrin alpha6, in breast cancer cells. She found that splice variants of this integrin differentially modulate tumour cell adhesion, invasion and metastasis. Her work enhances our understanding of the roles of particular integrins in tumour progression.
2023	Dr. Moon developed enzyme-mediated cell surface engineering techniques that modify both major blood antigen A and minor blood antigen RhD to generate universal donor red blood cells.
2023	Dr. Cederberg interrogated the role of myeloid cells in the tumour microenvironment. Her dissertation work enhances our understanding of the interplay between innate and adaptive immune cells in solid tumours and identifies novel intervention points for the treatment of primary and metastatic disease.

Program Website

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Apply for September 2026

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Apply for January 2027

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September 2026 Intake

Application Open Date8 September 2025

Canadian Applicant Deadline18 August 2026

International Applicant Deadline1 May 2026

January 2027 Intake

Application Open Date15 December 2025

Canadian Applicant Deadline1 December 2026

International Applicant Deadline2 September 2026

May 2027 Intake

Application Open Date1 September 2026

Canadian Applicant Deadline11 April 2027

International Applicant Deadline3 January 2027

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Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD)

Overview

Quick Facts

Admission Information & Requirements

1) Check Eligibility

Minimum Academic Requirements

English Language Test

TOEFL: Test of English as a Foreign Language - internet-based

IELTS: International English Language Testing System

Other Test Scores

2) Meet Deadlines

3) Prepare Application

Transcripts

Letters of reference

Statement of Interest

Supervision

Instructions regarding thesis supervisor contact for this program

Citizenship Verification

4) Apply Online

Research Information

Research Focus

Tuition & Financial Support

Tuition

Financial Support

Program Funding Packages

Funding Statistics

Scholarships & awards (merit-based funding)

Graduate Research Assistantships (GRA)

Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTA)

Graduate Academic Assistantships (GAA)

Financial aid (need-based funding)

Foreign government scholarships

Working while studying

Tax credits and RRSP withdrawals

Cost Estimator

Career Outcomes

Sample Employers in Higher Education

Sample Employers Outside Higher Education

Sample Job Titles Outside Higher Education

PhD Career Outcome Survey

Disclaimer

Career Options

Enrolment, Duration & Other Stats

ENROLMENT DATA

Completion Rates and Times

Disclaimer

Doctoral Exams Upcoming

Tuesday, June 30, 2026 - 09:00 - 2267, Diamond Health Care Centre, 2775 Laurel St

Thursday, July 9, 2026 - 11:00 - 1510, Life Sciences Institute, 2350 Health Sciences Mall

Research Supervisors

Supervision

Instructions regarding thesis supervisor contact for this program

Advice and insights from UBC Faculty on reaching out to supervisors

Sample Thesis Submissions

Doctoral Citations

Related Programs

Same specialization

Further Information

Specialization

UBC Calendar

Program Website

Faculty

Academic Unit

Program Identifier

Classification

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September 2026 Intake

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May 2027 Intake

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