Michael Smith was a British-born Canadian biochemist and businessman. He shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Kary Mullis for his work in developing site-directed mutagenesis. Following a PhD in 1956 from the University of Manchester, he undertook postdoctoral research with Har Gobind Khorana at the British Columbia Research Council in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Subsequently, Smith worked at the Fisheries Research Board of Canada Laboratory in Vancouver before being appointed a professor of biochemistry in the UBC Faculty of Medicine in 1966. Smith's career included roles as the founding director of the UBC Biotechnology Laboratory and the founding scientific leader of the Protein Engineering Network of Centres of Excellence (PENCE). In 1996 he was named Peter Wall Distinguished Professor of Biotechnology. Subsequently, he became the founding director of the Genome Sequencing Centre at the BC Cancer Research Centre.
Stanley Alan Plotkin is an American physician who works as a consultant to vaccine manufacturers, such as Sanofi Pasteur, as well as biotechnology firms, non-profits and governments. In the 1960s, he played a pivotal role in discovery of a vaccine against rubella virus while working at Wistar Institute in Philadelphia. Plotkin was a member of Wistar’s active research faculty from 1960 to 1991. Today, in addition to his emeritus appointment at Wistar, he is emeritus professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania. His book, Vaccines, is the standard reference on the subject. He is an editor with Clinical and Vaccine Immunology, which is published by the American Society for Microbiology in Washington, D.C.
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research is a federal agency responsible for funding health and medical research in Canada. Comprising 13 institutes, it is the successor to the Medical Research Council of Canada.
Lorne Allan Babiuk, is a Canadian scientist specializing in immunology, pathogenesis, virology, molecular virology, and vaccinology. He is the Vice-President of Research at the University of Alberta and the former Director of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan. Dr Babiuk holds the Canada Research Chair in Vaccinology and Biotechnology and is Chair of the Board for Pan-Provincial Vaccine Enterprise (PREVENT), a vaccine development company.
The Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies was founded in 1991 and is the senior research institute at the University of British Columbia. It supports basic research through collaborative, interdisciplinary initiatives. The institute brings together UBC scholars with researchers from around the world "to work together on innovative research, develop new thinking that is beyond disciplinary boundaries, and engage in intellectual risk-taking." The institute has a varied program of scholars in residence, visiting scholars, distinguished professorship, multiple speaker series, and major special events.
The National Core for Neuroethics at the University of British Columbia was established in August 2007, with support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Institute of Mental Health and Addiction, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund, the Canada Research Chairs program, the UBC Brain Research Centre and the UBC Institute of Mental Health. Co-founded by Judy Illes and Peter Reiner, the Core studies neuroethics, with particular focus on ethics in neurodegenerative disease and regenerative medicine, international and cross-cultural challenges in brain research, neuroimaging and ethics, the neuroethics of enhancement, and personalized medicine.
The Centre for Blood Research (CBR) is a multidisciplinary biomedical research institute, situated primarily at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and affiliated teaching hospitals in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with nodes at the University of Northern British Columbia and at the University of Victoria. Its mission is to improve the health and well-being of patients by performing innovative research in blood and blood-related processes.
David Francis Hardwick MD, FRCPC, FCAP was a Canadian medical academic and researcher in the field of paediatric pathology. Hardwick was involved with The University of British Columbia (UBC) for more than sixty years as a student, professor, and Professor Emeritus. His research included the first description of histopathologic implications of differential survival of Wilms' Tumors to pathogenesis of L-methionine toxicity and administrative/management research.
Michael R. Hayden, is a Killam Professor of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia, the highest honour UBC can confer on any faculty member. Only four such awards have ever been conferred in the Faculty of Medicine. Dr. Hayden is also Canada Research Chair in Human Genetics and Molecular Medicine. Hayden is best known for his research in Huntington disease (HD).
Stanley Howard Zlotkin, is a Canadian Professor of Paediatrics, Public Health Sciences and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto.
Nadine Rena Caron FACS, FRCSC,, is a Canadian surgeon. She is the first Canadian female general surgeon of First Nations descent (Ojibway), as well as the first female First Nations student to graduate from University of British Columbia's medical school.
B. Brett Finlay, is a Canadian microbiologist well known for his contributions to understanding how microbes cause disease in people and developing new tools for fighting infections, as well as the role the microbiota plays in human health and disease. Science.ca describes him as one of the world's foremost experts on the molecular understanding of the ways bacteria infect their hosts. He also led the SARS Accelerated Vaccine Initiative (SAVI) and developed vaccines to SARS and a bovine vaccine to E. coli O157:H7. His current research interests focus on pathogenic E. coli and Salmonella pathogenicity, and the role of the microbiota in infections, asthma, and malnutrition. He is currently the UBC Peter Wall Distinguished Professor and a Professor in the Michael Smith Laboratories, Microbiology and Immunology, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Co-director and Senior Fellow for the CIFAR Humans and Microbes program. He is also co-author of the book Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Your Child from an Oversanitized World and The Whole-Body Microbiome: How to Harness Microbes - Inside and Out - For Lifelong Health. Finlay is the author of over 500 publications in peer-reviewed journals and served as editor of several professional publications for many years.
Dr. Martin Gleave is a Canadian surgeon and cancer researcher who was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2018.
Christine Therese Chambers is a Canadian clinical psychologist at Dalhousie University. She holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Children's Pain.
Pauline Johnson is an English immunologist and microbiologist at the University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on innate and adaptive immune mechanisms — in particular, the mobility of proteins in membranes, lymphocyte cell surface molecules, T cell signalling, leukocyte adhesion, and macrophages in lung inflammation.
Scott Halperin is a Canadian immunologist, professor of pediatrics, microbiology, and immunology at Dalhousie University, the head of Pediatric Infection Diseases at IWK Health Centre, and the director of the Canadian Centre for Vaccinology.
Deborah McColl Money is a Canadian obstetric and gynaecological infectious disease specialist. As a professor at the University of British Columbia, she was the first non-US President of the Infectious Diseases Society for Obstetrics and Gynecology from 2010 until 2012.
Liisa Ann Margaret Galea is a Canadian neuroscientist who is a professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia. She is a member of the Centre for Brain Health and Director of the Graduate Programme in Neuroscience. Her research considers the impact of hormones on brain health and behaviour.
Adeera Levin MD, FRCPC is a Professor of Medicine, and is head of the Division of Nephrology at University of British Columbia.
Jehannine Claire Austin is a Canadian neuropsychiatric geneticist and a genetic counselor. They are a professor at the University of British Columbia and Executive Director of the Provincial Health Services Authority's BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services Research Institute. In 2012, Austin founded the world’s first specialist psychiatric genetic counselling service.
