The overall goal of this unit is to make breakthroughs in the prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of cancer by focusing on the role and therapeutic promise of stem cells. Studies will focus on defining molecular pathways that govern stem cell renewal, viability, their development into specific types of cells (such as bone and blood) and their ability to multiply in a variety of body tissue. Researchers are particularly interested in understanding how inherited and acquired gene mutations may influence these processes and contribute to the development of cancer.
Program: Research Units
The James Hogg iCAPTURE Centre for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Research
This unit brings together a multidisciplinary group of researchers, in the UBC departments of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Medicine and Pharmacology & Therapeutics, whose efforts are directed at developing effective strategies and interventions to prevent, detect and treat heart, lung and blood vessel diseases. The researchers are particularly interested in discovering how interactions between genetic and environmental factors lead to the development of particular disease manifestations, including variations in susceptibility to these diseases, severity of symptoms and the rate at which symptoms progress.
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Centre for Health and Environmental Research
The goal of this unit is primary prevention of disease associated with environmental hazards, including regional and local air pollution; emerging water and airborne microbacterial hazards; moulds and other indoor air pollutants as well as indoor hazards such as classroom acoustical quality; and hazards particular to certain occupations. Researchers will focus on four areas: identifying basic mechanisms and risk factors for environmental influences on health; quantifying the risks; developing and evaluating interventions; and developing and evaluating strategies for communicating risks and their solutions to community stakeholders and decision-makers.
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Solid Tumour Progression Research Unit
Surgery, radiation and chemotherapy are routinely used for treating solid tumours. However, there are very few therapies that are effective in countering metastatic progression (spread to other areas of the body), which is the major cause of death associated with solid tumours. This unit aims to develop and evaluate novel compounds that control or prevent solid tumour metastasis.
NEXUS: Researching the Social Contexts of Health Behaviour
NEXUS is a multidisciplinary research unit focused on developing knowledge, interventions and policy recommendations that are sensitive to the social contexts that shape health behaviours of individuals and practices of health care providers. Unit researchers will focus on exploring, describing and recommending actions to address the social contexts that create barriers to health, affect individual capacity to maintain a healthy lifestyle or to effectively seek and benefit from health services, and influence how systems (such as health and judicial) respond.
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Musculoskeletal Research Centre: New Coordinated Applications for Bone Health
This multi-disciplinary unit is focused on improving current treatment of fractures, developing and implementing primary and secondary prevention strategies and developing new knowledge about mechanisms underlying bone health and disease. This includes research exploring the role of bone mineral as an important determinant of joint health. The unit’s goal is the development and translation of new knowledge to optimize bone health and minimize the burden of osteoporosis and fracture.
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Institute of Health Promotion Research: Strengthening Health Disparities Research in BC
Many people suffer from negative health behaviours, reduced health status and inappropriate access to and/or use of health services associated with being part of a vulnerable population. Focusing on five settings – community, workplace, clinical-community interface, school and international – this multidisciplinary unit will undertake research aimed at developing health promotion strategies to help reduce these disparities. The unit’s emphasis will be on development of better tools, methods and resources for conducting research with vulnerable populations, and improvements in knowledge translation and dissemination of research findings.
Immunity and Infection Research Centre
This unit’s overall mission is to advance understanding of the human immune response involved in transplantation and mitigation of infectious diseases. The unit brings together a multidisciplinary team of basic scientists, clinicians and health professionals who are undertaking basic and translational research involving molecular and cellular mechanisms of immunity. Their goal: to improve transplantation outcomes and the ability to understand and deal effectively with infectious diseases.
FIND: Fundamental Innovation in Neurodegenerative Diseases
The goal of this research unit is to understand the molecular mechanisms leading to neuronal (brain cell) death in Huntington Disease, an incurable genetic disorder that usually strikes in mid-life, causing progressive, irreversible and ultimately fatal neurological damage. With a focus on the fundamental molecular structure and function of neurons, such research also has relevance in understanding the development and effects of other degenerative neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease, and for understanding recovery from brain injury. As the study of disease reveals information about normal structure and function, this research will also contribute new knowledge about healthy brain development.
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Centre for Healthcare Innovation and Improvement
This unit is focused on developing and translating research knowledge into policies and practices that improve health and quality of health care for children, women and their families. It brings together full-time researchers and clinician-researchers with the multidisciplinary skill sets, resources and linkages to identify and address a wide range of health care issues. Research teams, which will include decision-makers, will evaluate specific health issues, design and test interventions for these issues, and then implement and evaluate the effectiveness of ensuing policy and practice changes.
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