Research Projects

Currently Open Research Projects

This list of possible research projects is non-exhaustive. It only shows positions that are specifically advertised in the G+PS website.

Position Title Supervisor(s) Faculty Research Classification
Postdoctoral Fellow Yi Qian Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration Economics of health care
Postdoctoral Fellowship Position in Biomolecular Spectroscopy James Piret Faculty of Science Medical and biomedical engineering
Graduate student: Single-molecule biophysics Sabrina Leslie Faculty of Science Medical, health and life sciences
Graduate student: Oligotherapeutics imaging Sabrina Leslie Faculty of Science Medical, health and life sciences
Graduate student: Single-particle imaging of Lipid Nanoparticles Sabrina Leslie Faculty of Science Medical, health and life sciences
Postdoctoral Fellow: 5G and drones Walter Mérida Faculty of Applied Science Wireless communication systems, Communications and network control systems, Distributed computation and signal processing, Cloud computing systems
Postdoc Research Associate in RNA biology Xuesen Dong Faculty of Medicine Cancer drug development and therapeutics, Urology

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Faculty Members Recruiting Students

This list shows a selection of faculty members who are currently looking for new graduate students. They may have specified particular projects they wish to fill. Please ensure to review the departmental profile of each faculty member to learn more about their research interests and to ensure a good fit to your intended studies at UBC.

Last namesort descending First name Research Interests Desired start dates: Project areas
Harris Leila Critical identity, ethnic and race studies; Gender, sexuality and education; Human rights, justice, and ethical issues; Africa; Development Policies; Drinking Water; Environmental justice; equity and social justice; Ethics and Fundamental Issues of Law and Justice; Fresh Water; Gender Relationship; gender and social difference; Ghana; International development; participatory resource management; Resources Management; Social Contract and Social Justice; Social and Cultural Factors of Environmental Protection; South Africa; Turkey and Middle East; Water; water governance; water politics

Please see www.edges.ubc.ca and www.watergoveranance.ca for ongoing research efforts. There are currently funded research opportunities with the decolonizingwater.ca project on Indigenous water governance issues (in Canada and elsewhere) and there may be upcoming support for analysis of non material dimensions... Read More

Hayden Michael Genetic medicine; Health counselling; Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects; Diabetes; Disease progression; Drug development; Gene Therapy; Genetic Diseases; Huntington disease; Neurodegenerative diseases; Neurodegenerative disorders Any time / year round

Hayden Lab Research Projects

Huntington Disease (HD) is a devastating incurable neurodegenerative disease that affects about 5,000 Canadians. Inheriting a single mutant copy of the Huntingtin (HTT) gene from either parent is sufficient to cause HD. The mutated HTT gene codes for production of the toxic, mutant huntingtin protein (mHTT) that is responsible for killing... Read More

Hermiston Nancy Jane Performing arts, n.e.c.; Other medical sciences; opera, voice, theatre, interdisciplinary work with a diversity of fields and opera; Opera training and its effect on sculpting the brain - Wall Opera Project, Hermiston/L/Boyd/J Werker Any time / year round, 2023

Wall Opera Project - Does Opera Training sculpt the brain. Does the study of opera performance change the brain function for students with learning disabilities ? Does it have positive effects for all students studying opera. If there are positive effects to be found how could this help people who have other brain disfunctions or have succombed to diseases or stokes affecting the brain?

Hirsh Elizabeth Sociology; Law; Structures and Organization; Inequality, Gender and Race Discrimination, Work Organizations, Law Any time / year round
  • Analzying the impact of diversity policies on gender and race workplace diversity
  • Case studies of employment discrimination and human rights complaints
Hodges Nicola Sport and exercise psychology; Behavioural neuroscience of learning and memory; action anticipation and observation; coaching and motor skill expertise; skill acquisition; Motor learning; observational learning and instruction; sports skill development Any time / year round

Sport development pathways, women's and men's soccer, action observation and prediction, observational learning of perceptual motor skills, optimizing practice conditions through practice manipulations and instructions, motor skill expertise and associated processes

Hodgson Antony Image guided surgery systems; computer assisted orthopaedic surgery; Medical Imaging; surgical navigation; orthopaedics; biomechanics; surgical robots; Image Processing; Machine Learning Any time / year round

Computer-assisted orthopaedic surgery

Ultrasound image acquisition and processing

Surgical navigation systems

Hohl Corinne Emergency Medicine; Epidemiology; Pharmacoepidemiology; Health Information Systems; Health Care Organization; Decision Making; Patient Safety; Medication Safety; Adverse Drug Events; Drug safety and effectiveness; Health Information Technology; Clinical Decision Making; Health services research; Adverse Event Reporting

My research group is working with Ministry to develop, implement and evaluate a new provincial medication safety information technology we have developed. This work will provide multiple opportunities for graduate students to be involved in. With the implementation of this technology more robust data will become available on adverse drug events experienced by patients. Future projects include... Read More

Holsti Liisa Medical, health and life sciences; premature infants; neurodevelopment; stress; pain; measurement; technology transfer; sucrose; rehabilitation; pediatrics Any time / year round

neonatology, pediatrics, occupational therapy, measurement, rehabilitation

Huan Tao Bioinformatics, n.e.c.; Analytical spectrometry; Metabolomics; Separation science; Cancer progression and metastasis; Human nutrition and metabolism; Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; Cellular Metabolism; Bioinformatics Any time / year round

Our research interests include:

  • Integration of metabolomics with other ‘omics’ (epigenomics, genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics) data for the systems-level interrogation of biological problems
  • Application of state-of-art metabolomics technologies in various biological challenges, such as mechanistic understanding of cancer metabolism and disease biomarker discovery... Read More
Hudson Zachary Synthesis of materials; Functional materials in materials chemistry sciences; Organic chemical synthesis; Optical properties of materials; Luminescent materials; Organic electronics; Polymer chemistry; Organic chemistry; Organic light-emitting diodes 2021, 2022

1) Luminescent materials design for applications in organic electronics.

2) Fluorescent polymer nanoparticles for biological sensing with high sensitivity.

3) Ultrastable fluorophores for catalysis, electroluminescence, and two-photon fluorescence.

 

Hung Lillian Geriatric nursing; Medical and biomedical engineering; Impact of technology and environment on the care experiences of persons with dementia; dementia education; quality improvement; Participatory action research 2021

Robotics and digital health for dementia care

Hurd Laura Sociological methodology and research methods; Sociology and social studies of health, health systems and health care; Aging; Gender; health; ageism or age-based discrimination; sociology of aging; sociology of health; embodiment or embodied experience; body image; chronic conditions or chronic illness; disability; Assistive technology; qualitative methods; media representation; LGBTQ+ aging; intersectionality 2023

I supervise students with backgrounds in sociology or socio-cultural studies. Students under my supervision typically conduct research in the areas of aging, gender, health, illness, body image, embodiment, disability, physical activity, sexuality, and assistive or information technologies.

Irwin Darren Zoology; evolutionary genetics; genomic differentiation; hybridization; ornithology; seasonal migration; speciation Any time / year round

Please see: https://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~irwin/irwinlab/

 

Iurascu Ilinca Comparative literatures; Theories of cultural studies; Media, visual and digital culture; German literature; Comparative Literature; Cultural Studies; media theory; Media history; critical theory; film studies Any time / year round

German studies; comparative literature; cultural studies; media theory; media history; critical theory; film studies 

Jan Eric Biochemistry; Virus; Nucleic Acids; Proteomics; Antiviral innate immunity; coronavirus; coxsackievirus; enterovirus; Innate immunity; molecular biology; picornavirus; protease; Protein synthesis; RNA; RNA structure function; RNA virus; ribosome; SARS; tRNA; translation; Virology; virus host interactions Any time / year round, 2023

Projects include

  • elucidating virus host interactions such as antiviral innate immunity and viral proteins that modulate cellular processes
  • identifying host protein substrates by viral proteinases
  • non-canonical protein synthesis mechanisms used by viruses and cellular mRNAs

Approaches include biochemical, molecular and cell biology methods, proteomics... Read More

Jean Francois Medical virology; Protein trafficking in cell biology; Proteomics; Enzymes (including kinetics and mechanisms, and biocatalyst); Organelle function; Virology; Systems biology; Cellular virology; Emerging human viruses; COVID-19; Host-virus interactions; Broad-based antiviral agents; Antiviral agents; Natural products as antiviral agents; Lipid-modulating drugs; Cellular protease inhibitors; Viral protease inhibitors; Human coronaviruses; SARS-CoV-2; Human flaviviruses; Dengue virus; Zika virus; West Nile virus; Influenza A virus; Human microRNAs; Therapeutic microRNA; Viral and cellular biomarkers; Molecular diagnostics for detecting viral infection; Circulating exosomes; Exosomal microRNAs; Proteomics-based technologies; Multiplexed and Mass Spectrometric quantitation assays Any time / year round
  1. Antiviral strategies and antiviral therapeutics

  2. Comparative phenotypic profiling and genomic analysis of circulating SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern

  3. Discovering broad-spectrum therapeutics  for human viral diseases

  4. Discovering novel broad-spectrum antiviral agents from natural product libraries

  5. Unraveling the... Read More

Jelovica Jasmin Civil engineering; Mechanical engineering; Finite element analysis; Metals and Alloys; Production and Process Optimization; Sandwich structures; Solid Mechanics; Stress Analysis; Structural optimization; Ultimate, fatigue and impact strength; Welding and joining of metals Any time / year round

1) New finite element analysis techniques for lightweight structures;

2) Development of optimization algorithms for structural optimization; 

3) Machine learning methodology for reduced order modeling of mechanical systems.

Jenstad Lorienne Other health sciences; hearing aids; Aging; audiology; hearing health; amplification Any time / year round

New ways of assessing hearing aid outcomes; encouraging older adults to seek and use hearing health care services; acoustic and behavioural assessment of hearing aid processing.

Communication between audiologists and patients.

Jin Xiao Liang Mechanical engineering; Manufacturing Processes; Solid Mechanics; Machining Mechanics and Dynamics; Manufacturing Processes for Advanced Materials; Material Characterization; Surface Integrity; Vibration Assisted Machining

Surface integrity in vibration assisted machining process.
Surface texturing process.
Chip formation stability in high-speed machining process.

Jones Steven J Bioinformatics, genome science, mutations, cancer progression Any time / year round

Bioinformatics Cancer Genomics

Kalia Sunil Skin Cancer; Optics and Photonics; Skin Disorders; Epidemiology; optics; photobiology; dermatoepidemiology; Cancer Any time / year round

Dermatoepidemiology; Examining the epidemiology of skin cancer in the general population and identifying high risk population groups Skin cancer prevention; Using national surveys conducted by Statistics Canada, I have examined skin cancer prevention behaviours practiced by Canadians; Spectoscopy; Using imaging to differentiate skin cancer from benign lesions. Photobiology to study properties... Read More

Kamat Vinay Ramnath Anthropology; Global Health and Emerging Diseases; Dispossession; East Africa; ethnography; Extractive Industry; Global Health; India; Malaria; marine conservation; Medical Anthropology; Outsourcing of Clinical Trials; political ecology; Tanzania

Politics of marine conservation and natural gas extraction in East Africa; Behavioral Aspects of Tuberculosis and Dengue in India.

Karsan Aly Hematological tumours; Cancer molecular targets; Leukemia; Hematopoiesis; Genomics and epigenomics; Noncoding RNAs; Aging Any time / year round

The major research focus of my lab revolves around acute myeloid leukemia, and preleukemias referred to as myelodysplastic syndromes. Within this context we are interested in various posttranscriptional mechanisms that drive these cancers, how aging increases the risk of developing leukemias, and how to potentially target genomic and epigenomic vulnerabilities.

Keenan Harper Curriculum, pedagogy and didactics; Gender, sexuality and education; Inter-disciplinary, trans-disciplinary learning and education; Colonialism; early childhood and elementary education; Educational Context; Gender; race; sexuality; teacher education; childhood; Transgender Studies; LGBT Studies; queer studies 2023

I am currently working on projects in multiple areas:

- Gender self-determination in early childhood and elementary education

- Trans pedagogy as practiced by trans educators outside formal schooling environments

- The experiences of transgender workers in PK-12 schools

I am most interested in working with students whose scholarship would contribute to or expand... Read More

Kennedy Emily Sociology; Environment and Society; Social and Cultural Factors of Environmental Protection; Gender; social class; Sustainable consumption 2023
  • Understanding how engagement in environmentalism is related to social class, political ideology, and gender
  • Examining the way that definitions of morality play a role in consumer tastes and environmental movements
Klein Peter Media Types (Radio, Television, Written Press, etc.); Video and New Media; Global Health and Emerging Diseases; Large International Projects; Media and Democratization; Global Journalism; Innovation in Journalism; Documentary Production; Investigative Reporting Any time / year round

Investigative reporting on global supply chains

Klein Geltink Ramon Pathology (except oral pathology); Metabolism; Immunotherapy; Cell Signaling and Infectious and Immune Diseases; Auto-Immune Diseases; Cell Therapy of Cancer; Adoptive cellular therapy; Immunometabolism; T cell function Any time / year round

My research program at UBC/BCCHRI aims to better understand how the immune system can be used to treat childhood diseases. In children with cancer, the immune system is no longer able to rid the body of cancerous cells. In children with autoimmune diseases the immune system gets rid of healthy cells of the body. We are particularly interested in the metabolism of immune cells. 

Cellular... Read More

Klinkenberg Brian Geomatics; Biogeography; Bioinformatics; Environmental Health; Geographic Information Science; Environmental Remote Sensing; Spatial Analysis; Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) and Citizen Science Initiatives Any time / year round

Please view my home page for a listing of current projects.

Klonsky Elisha Clinical psychology; Suicide (theory, motivations, transition from suicidal thoughts to attempts); emotion; personality. 2022

The lab's primary focus is suicide (including theory, motivations, warning signs, improved measurement of key risk and protective factors). Secondary lab interesets include classification and assessment of emotion and personality.

Kronstad James Bioinformatics; Immunology; Microbiology; Plant biology; Fungal diseases of plants; Genomics and Proteomics; Medical Mycology; Molecular Genetics; Pathogenesis of infectious diseases; Plant-Microbe Interactions Any time / year round
  • Characterization of iron uptake and regulatory functions in Cryptococcus neoformans
  • Analysis of virulence factor export to the cell surface in Cryptococcus neoformans
  • Characterization of the chloroplast as a target of fungal attack
  • Analysis of nutrient acquisition during fungal pathogenesis
Kubota Ryuko Specialized studies in education; critical applied linguistics; culture and language; Language Rights and Policies; language education; language ideologies; multicultural education; race and language teaching Any time / year round

Antiracist and justice-oriented language education

Kuo Calvin Biomechanical engineering; Medical devices; Biomedical instrumentation (including diagnostics); Sensing human motion; How humans make sense of their own motion; Sensorimotor Neutrophysiology; Wearable Sensing; Musculoskeletal Modeling

Cardiac arrest sensing and emergency response.

Kwakkel Erik Archival, repository and related studies; Library science and information studies; Codicology; History of Libraries; History of the Book; Medieval Manuscripts; Paleography; reading Any time / year round

Manuscript studies; History of the Book; History of Reading; History of Libraries; Materiality of Information (Book Design); Digital Humanities where it intersects with the History of the Book.

Laffin Christina Humanities and the arts; premodern Japanese literature; medieval Japanese history; women's writing; Japanese women's history; travel writing; autobiography; Japanese poetry; Literacy; socialization; wet nursing; narratology Any time / year round

Heian and Kamakura-era literature, late Heian and medieval women's history

Lagresa-González Elizabeth Humanities and the arts; Early modern Literature and Culture; Early modern Theater; Early modern Visual and Material culture; Queer, Gender and Sexuality studies; Cross-cultural and Comparative studies Any time / year round

Early modern Spanish literature and culture. Transatlantic Studies. Mediterranean Studies. Spanish theatre. 

Lallous Nada Cancer drug development and therapeutics; Cancer progression and metastasis; Cancer molecular targets; Biochemistry; Biophysics; Cancer biology; Therapeutics; Protein research; Drug resistance; transcription factors 2021

Expression, purification and biophysical characterization of various prostate cancer targets.

Lamers Yvonne Human nutrition and dietetics; Nutrition; Nutrients; Biological and Biochemical Mechanisms; Breast Feeding and Infant Nutrition; Clinical Chemistry; Maternal and child health; Micronutrients; Newborn Screening; Nutritional Biochemistry; Nutritional Biomarker; Periconceptional folic acid supplementation; Pregnancy; Prenatal Supplements; Toddler Nutrition; Vitamins Any time / year round

My enthusiasm for research draws from my interest in the biochemistry and physiology of nutrition-related diseases and in targeted and population-based strategies of chronic disease prevention and optimal health promotion. My research focuses on micronutrients and specifically B-vitamins and their kinetics and functions in human metabolism. B-vitamins are required for normal cell growth and... Read More

Lange Philipp Bioinformatics; Genomics; Pathology (except oral pathology); Cell Signaling and Cancer; mass spectrometry; pediatric cancer; personalized medicine; post translational protein modification; Proteomics Any time / year round
  • translational portoemics in childhood cancer
  • advancing precision medicine in childhood cancer
  • proteolytic regulation of cell-cell communication
  • computational and experimental approaches to better understand and classify proteoforms
  • new algorithms in quantitative mass spectrometry data analysis  
Laronde Denise Cancer; oral cancer screening; malignant transformation; early detection; oral premalignant lesions

oral cancer screening

early detection

markers of progression

Lazrak Ali Finance and Accounting; Economic Phenomena on an Individual or Organizational Level; Asset pricing, Corporate Finance, Behavioral Finance, Household portfolio choice

Different research projects in the finance area are available

Leavitt Blair Genetic medicine; Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects; Alzheimer's disease; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis; Ataxia; Dementia; Experimental Therapeutics; Frontotemporal Dementia; Gene regulation; Gene Silencing and Gene Editing; Gene Therapy; Huntington disease; Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells; Medical Genetics; Mouse models of disease; Neurodegenerative diseases; Neurogenetics

Mouse models of neurodegenerative diseases
Clinical biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases (Imaging, CSF, Blood)
Gene silencing, gene editing and gene therapy for brain diseases
Transcriptional regulation of disease genes
Experimental therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases
Induced pluripotent stem cells models of human brain diseases

Lester Richard Infectious diseases; Digital health; Mobile health (mHealth); Precision Public Health; Patient-centered care; Global Health Any time / year round

Global digital health for patient engagement in care and virtual care. Work in Canada, Africa and globally. Quantitative and qualitative studies, implementation research, data science, and digital health policy and ethics. Especially among scaling interventions to benefit vulnerable populations and health equity.

Levings Megan Immunology; Cell therapy; Immune tolerance; Transplantation; Autoimmunity; Gene Therapy; Regulatory T cells 2023

Various projects related to regulatory T cell therapy biology and clinical applications

Li Shyh-Dar Drug discovery, design and delivery; Nano-technology; biopharmaceutics; drug delivery; nanomedicine; pharmaceutics; Gene delivery and therapy Any time / year round
  1. Development of lipid and polymer based nanoparticles for targeted drug and nucleic acid delivery
  2. Development of child-friendly formulations
  3. Ocular drug delivery
  4. Drug delivery to the brain
  5. Sustained drug release formulations
  6. Needle free delivery of proteins
  7. Gene therapy and vaccine
Lim Chinten James Cancer progression and metastasis; Solid cancer tumours; Hematological tumours; tumour cell biology; mechanisms of drug resistance; integrin cell adhesion and migration; tumour microenvironment; pediatric oncology Any time / year round

Integrin cell adhesion in chemotherapeutic resistance. Targeted drug susceptibilities. Tumour microenvironment. Immunogenic cell death. Pediatric oncology.

Liu-Ambrose Teresa Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects; Physical therapy; Rehabilitation medicine; Healthy Aging; exercise; Fall prevention; Cognitive Aging; Randomized Controlled Trials; Physical Activity; Mobility; Neuroimaging; Sleep Any time / year round

Increasing precision in exercise prescription to promote cognitive and brain health. The neural interplay between cognitive function and mobility. The relationship between sleep and cognitive function. Preventing falls in high-risk older adults.

Loewen Peter Cardiology and circulatory sciences (including cardiovascular disease); Clinical pharmacy and pharmacy practice; Knowledge translation and implementation science in health; atrial fibrillation; Pharmacoepidemiology; Thrombosis and Embolism; adherence to medication; Cardiovascular diseases; Arrhythmia; Heart Failure; stroke; Health Care Technologies; Professional Practices; Hematology; decision making; clinical prediction rules; healthcare communication technologies; hospital pharmacy practice; knowledge translation of evidence to patient care; patient complexiometry; patient decision aids; patient education; pharmacy practice; prediction of stroke and bleeding in atrial fibrillation patients; quality of care, quality drug therapy; Shared decision-making; stroke prevention therapy; use of mobile technology for clinical decision-making Any time / year round

In the above domains, to be worked out with excellent candidates. I am well funded by CIHR and have an excellent track record of mentoring MSc and PhD students. 

Loewen Christopher Membranes and Organelles; Lipid Signalling; Lipid Traffic; Membrane Contact Sites; Genetic Networks; Systems Biology; Super Resolution Microscopy; Cell polarity; Endoplasmic Reticulum; Golgi; Membrane Diffusion Barriers; Cell Biology; Autism; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS); Cancer Cell Metabolism Any time / year round

We currently have projects in the areas of genetic networks, cell signalling, membrane contact sites, cell polarity, cancer metabolism and autism. We use multiple model systems to study these topics including budding yeast for genetic network analysis, model human cell lines for cell signalling and microscopy, and knockout mouse genetic models for in vivo functional analysis.

Lorincz Matthew Genetic medicine; Developmental Genetics; genomics; chromatin; Development; Epigenetics; Epigenomics; Gene regulation 2024
  • Role of epigenetics in male and female germline development
  • Role of retroelements in gene regulation
  • Interplay between epigenetic marks and DNA methylation in the early embryo
Loucks Catrina Medical, health and life sciences; Pharmacogenomics; Pain management; Medical Genetics; Model organism genetics; Drug reactions Any time / year round

In our work, we strive to make a meaningful impact on maternal and child health by contributing to leading-edge research aimed at improving pain management.

Safe and effective pain management is influenced by individual genetic differences that dictate both how we feel pain and how we respond to specific pain relievers. Using pharmacogenomics, the study of how genetic... Read More

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