Canada is facing one of the highest growth rates for drug costs among developed nations. As a result, cost is the primary factor leading public policy decisions for drug insurance programs. Researchers in this unit will conduct studies to systematically assess the effectiveness and safety of prescription drugs in tandem with cost-effectiveness. Their studies will help provide an evidence-based platform upon which policy-makers can make rational decisions about drug plan coverage.
Continue reading “Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy Innovation”
Respiratory sleep disorders affect more than 100,000 people in BC, with significant costs to the health care system and to the quality of life for those affected. A patient with a respiratory sleep disorder may stop breathing hundreds of times during the night, waking momentarily each time breathing resumes. As a result, they chronically get very little sleep.
Continue reading “Respiratory Sleep Disorders Research Unit”
Researchers at the centre are using tissue microarray technology to systematically validate whether certain biomarkers – cellular or molecular substances found in cancers – can be used to improve cancer diagnostics or predict the course of disease. With the ability to test hundreds of tumour samples at a time, researchers can assess the potential value of potential biomarkers with an efficiency that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago.
Continue reading “Genetic Pathology Evaluation Centre”
Dietary components are powerful determinants of health, affecting every aspect of human function from regulation of gene function to growth, physical and cognitive performance as well as our susceptibility to and ability to recover from disease. The Nutrition Research Centre at the Child and Family Research Institute on the site of BC’s Children’s & Women’s Health Centre is exploring the development of innovative nutritional strategies for preventing and managing disease, and for supporting children to achieve their maximum potential for physical and neurological development and health throughout life.
Continue reading “Nutrition Research Program”
This unit is studying the effectiveness of a “personhood-centred” approach to the care of people with dementia. Unit researchers are examining whether focusing on the individual and their social interactions rather than the disease process can reduce disability, lessen the agitation associated with dementia, help people better maintain their sense of personal identity, and improve quality of life.
Continue reading “Centre for Research on Personhood in Dementia Care”
Researchers in the Stem Cell Physiology Research Unit, located at The Biomedical Research Centre at UBC, are studying the biology of bone marrow stem cells and the immune system. They are focusing on understanding the molecular mechanisms that control how bone-marrow stem cells self-renew and how they differentiate into and function as specific types of blood cells. Their long-term goal is to understand how defence, repair, and regeneration are regulated and how this knowledge can be exploited to benefit health and offer new treatments for disease.
Continue reading “Stem Cell Physiology”
More than 1,000 children in BC have Type 1 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes, which typically has been regarded as the adult form of the disease, is on the rise in children. Researchers in this unit are investigating new ways to predict, prevent and treat diabetes in children, with the ultimate goal of finding a cure.
Continue reading “Childhood Diabetes Research Unit”
PC-TRIADD is a new initiative of the Prostate Centre at Vancouver General Hospital, where scientists and clinicians work together to translate discovery research into clinical practice through the development and implementation of clinical trials to assess the safety and effectiveness of new gene therapies. The centre contains the largest prostate tumor bank in Canada, and was the first organization in B.C. to construct and use “high throughput microarrays,” which enables researchers to study thousands of genes simultaneously from tissue samples. Scientists at the centre have already identified five key genes that cause prostate cancer to progress, and have developed targeted drugs that are currently being tested in clinical trials.
Continue reading “PC-TRIADD: The Prostate Centre’s Translational Research Initiative for Accelerated Discovery and Development”
Economic circumstances, family environment, neighbourhood conditions, cultural influences and biology all play a part in child and youth development. Because health, education, community and socioeconomic data have traditionally been tracked separately, researchers have not had the capacity to fully investigate the complex factors that affect the development of children and youth in BC. The new data system developed by the unit will change that, giving BC greater capacity than any other jurisdiction in the world to track the factors that support or undermine children’s cognitive, social, emotional and physical development, from the prenatal period through to early adulthood. This dedicated research team will expand the work of the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) based at UBC, which is an interdisciplinary network of more than 150 faculty, researchers and students from universities across BC that examines development across the lifespan.
Continue reading “Child and Youth Developmental Trajectories Research Unit”
NIMA-related kinases are a diverse family of proteins found in virtually all eukaryotic cells. Single-celled eukaryotes, such as yeast, have a single NIMA family member that helps regulate cell division. A recent discovery that Chlamydomonas, a single-celled green algae, has at least seven family members strikingly contrasts with other unicellular organisms. What sets Chlamydomonas apart from the other unicellular eukaryotes studied to date is the presence of cilia. Mutations in some NIMA kinsases can produce kidney cysts, as do mutations in the proteins essential for assembling cilia, short, hair-like structures that protrude from cell walls and sweep mucus up and out of lungs. In earlier research, Brian Bradley helped identify six new genes in Chlamydomonas. These algae are found all over the world, and are often used for research in cell and molecular biology. Now Brian is using the algae to study the assembly and function of cilia. Brian’s research could help explain the role of NIMA-related kinases in development of kidney disease.
