Faculty | School of Biomedical Engineering

Faculty (& link to research interests)	Other Department Affiliation	Faculty Rank	Research Area
Shernaz Bamji shernaz.bamji@ubc.ca	Cellular & Physiological Sciences	Professor Head, Neuroscience Research Group Associate Director, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health	• Understand the formation, remodelling, and elimination of synaptic connections in the brain • Determine how disruptions in the formation and/or plasticity of synaptic connections perturb brain function • Determine whether restoring synaptic function in the diseased brain can normalize cognitive and functional abilities
Ali Bashashati ali.bashashati@ubc.ca	Pathology and Laboratory Medicine	Assistant Professor Director of AI Research at BC Ovarian Cancer Program (OVCARE)	• Develop machine learning, statistical and signal processing algorithms and software infrastructure to combine various sources of omics and imaging data with major emphasis on discovering novel biological information and biomarkers that can be used for treatment selection in cancer
Sharareh Bayat shararehb@ece.ubc.ca	Electrical & Computer Engineering	Lecturer
Karen Cheung kcheung@ece.ubc.ca	Electrical & Computer Engineering	Professor Director, Graduate Biomedical Engineering Program & Associate Director	• Biomedical microsystems for diagnostic and therapeutic applications, dielectric spectroscopy for flow cytometry, implantable polymer-based microelectrode arrays, integrated cell culture systems. • Lab-on-a-chip systems for cell culture and characterization • Inkjet printing for tissue engineering • Implantable neural interfaces.
Peter Cripton peter.cripton@ubc.ca		Professor Director, Undergraduate Biomedical Engineering Program & Associate Director Principal Investigator, ICORD and Centre for Brain Health Co-Director, UBC Orthopaedic and Injury Biomechanics Group	• Orthopaedic Biomechanics • Injury Biomechanics • Neurotrauma (Spinal Cord and Brain Injury) • Biomechanics of Hip Fracture • Injury Prevention
Carl de Boer carl.deboer@ubc.ca		Assistant Professor	• Creation of genomic “big data” to decipher regulation of genomes • Understanding susceptibility to common complex inherited diseases, like autoimmunity and heart disease, via unravelling role of gene regulation in health and disease
Connie Eaves ceaves@bccrc.ca	Medical Genetics	Professor	• Normal and Leukemic Stem Cells – Characterization and Regulation • Normal and Malignant Breast Stem Cells – Characterization and Regulation • Derivation of Hematopoietic Cells from Human Embryonic and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells • Development, validation and use of quantitative assays that are specific for biologically distinct subsets of these stem cells using syngeneic (mouse-mouse) and xenogeneic (human-mouse) hosts, and the application of these technologies to understand the biological events that allow malignant clones to develop and progress
Kurt Haas kurt.haas@ubc.ca	Cellular & Physiological Sciences	Professor	• Direct imaging of structural and functional plasticity in the intact and awake developing brain underlying normal growth and formation of dysfunctional neural networks leading to Autism, Schizophrenia and Epilepsy.
Antony Hodgson ahodgson@mech.ubc.ca	Mechanical Engineering	Professor Director, Medtech Development Hub Associate Director, Institute of Computing, Information & Cognitive Systems	• Computer-Assisted Surgery • Medical Robotics • Surgical Simulators and Skill Assessment • Neuromotor Control • Biomechanics
Pamela Hoodless hoodless@bccrc.ca	Medical Genetics	Professor Director, Terry Fox Laboratory, BC Cancer	• Stem cells, control of normal development and mechanisms underlying cancer initiation and progression • Regulatory mechanisms in heart and gastrointestinal tract development in the mouse embryo using genome-wide analysis of gene expression, transcription factor binding, and histone modifications
Myeong Jin Ju myeongjin.ju@ubc.ca	Ophthamology & Visual Sciences	Assistant Professor	• Optical imaging systems and signal processing algorithms • OCT based angiography and polarimetry to examine the human eye in vivo for clinical applications in ophthalmology
Tim Kieffer tkieffer@mail.ubc.ca	Cellular & Physiological Sciences	Professor	• Development of novel gene and cell therapies for diabetes • Physiological Insulin Replacement
Calvin Kuo calvin.kuo@ubc.ca	Mechanical Engineering	Assistant Professor	• Traumatic brain injury • Parameter identification • Musculoskeletal modeling: simulation of the kinetic evolution of a head impact • Development of wearable sensors to capture concussion biomechanics • Monitoring musculoskeletal injuries: Bayesian filter for high rate human motion measurements
Zachary Laksman zlaksman@mail.ubc.ca	Cardiology	Assistant Professor Director, Atrial Fibrillation Clinic, St. Paul’s Hospital Director, Inherited Arrhythmia Clinic, St. Paul’s Hospital	• Arrhythmias • Cardiogenetics • Stem cell disease modelling • Wearable technology
Gabrielle Lam gabrielle.lam@ubc.ca	Materials Engineering	Assistant Professor of Teaching	• Knowledge integration and application of materials engineering and biomedical engineering
Megan Levings megan.levings@ubc.ca	Surgery	Professor Lead, Childhood Diseases, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute	• Regulatory immune cell therapy • Immune tolerance in transplantation and autoimmunity • Immune cell engineering
David Liu Dave.Liu@vch.ca	Radiology	Associate Professor	• Non-invasive imaging • Inferior vena cava filter management • Advanced management of blood clots • Interventional Radiology specializing in Oncology Therapies
Francis Lynn francis.lynn@ubc.ca	Surgery	Associate Professor	• Formation of islet β-cells (insulin producing cells) from pancreatic stem or progenitor cells during solid organ formation • Cell-based approaches for preventing and reversing the β-cell deterioration and loss that occurs with diabetes
Kelly McNagny kelly@brc.ubc.ca	Medical Genetics	Professor Associate Director, Allergen NCE Inc., the Allergy, Genes and Environment Network (Canada)	• Signaling networks, innate immune response, kidney function and cell based therapy • Transcriptional and signaling networks • Surface molecules expressed by HSC
Negar Mohaghegh Harandi negarm@ece.ubc.ca	Electrical & Computer Engineering	Lecturer	• Theory and experiments involving instruments for general, orthopedic, cardiac, and minimally invasive surgery • Sensors for respiratory, cardiac, bioelectric, biochemical and nervous system measurement
Ivan Robert Nabi ivan.robert.nabi@ubc.ca	Cellular & Physiological Sciences	Professor Director, Life Sciences Institute Imaging Facility	• Cell biology of cancer • Use of super-resolution microscopy to study cellular domains
Robyn Newell robyn.newell@ubc.ca		Lecturer
Calvin Roskelley roskelly@mail.ubc.ca	Cellular & Physiological Sciences	Professor	• Co-opted functions of genes during breast and ovarian carcinoma progression
Fabio Rossi fabio@brc.ubc.ca	Medical Genetics	Professor Director, Research & Associate Director Director, Biomedical Research Centre	• Cellular systems in muscle regeneration • Microglia/macrophages in CNS pathology • Epigenetic control of lineage choice/differentiation
Nika Shakiba nika.shakiba@ubc.ca		Assistant Professor	• Using cell competition to understand stem cell systems • A novel class of engineered stem cell therapies using synthetic biology • Using cell competition as a lens to reverse engineer stem cell systems and synthetic biology to forward engineer stem cell fitness
Roger Tam roger.tam@ubc.ca	Radiology	Associate Professor Director, Engineers in Scrubs Program	• Use of magnetic resonance images to improve the understanding of neurological disorders • In vivo imaging, imaging biomarkers, machine learning, imaging artifacts and their impact on quantitative analysis, computational shape modelling & morphometrics, and medical informatics & distributed medical imaging systems
Carolina Tropini carolina.tropini@ubc.ca	Microbiology & Immunology	Assistant Professor	• Stability of microbial communities and their response to perturbations during disease • Combining imaging, microfluidics and computational techniques • Osmotic and other physical perturbations, inflammatory bowel diseases, phage dynamics, and microbial invasion dynamics
Michael Underhill tunderhi@brc.ubc.ca	Cellular & Physiological Sciences	Professor	• The role of retinoic acid receptor-mediated signaling in chondrogenesis • Factors in skeletal development • Understanding transcriptional networks operating within the osteogenic program for novel therapeutic avenues to promote bone and cartilage formation for the treatment of skeletal diseases such as arthritis and osteoporosis
Jenna Usprech jenna.usprech@ubc.ca		Assistant Professor of Teaching	• Incorporating cellular/tissue engineering design into the SBME undergraduate curriculum
Rizhi Wang rizhi.wang@ubc.ca	Materials Engineering	Professor Canada Research Chair (Biomaterials)	• Novel surface designs and processing techniques on metal implants to regulate cell response and tissue organization and therefore to improve implant/tissue integrity • Deformation and fracture mechanisms of bone family materials • Morphology, ultrastructure and mechanics of biological interfaces to develop novel surface and interface design
Nozomu Yachie yachie.nozomu@ubc.ca		Associate Professor	• DNA Event Recording Biology, Genome Editing, Cell Lineage Tracing, Interactome, Bioinformatics • Harnessing genome editing, cell engineering, mouse genetics, and high-performance computing to establish “Sense,” “Write,” “Store,” and “Read” technologies for the massive tracing of molecular and cellular dynamics in high-resolution
Vikramaditya Yadav vikramaditya.yadav@ubc.ca	Chemical & Biological Engineering	Associate Professor Chair, Chemical Institute of Canada (Biotechnology Division)	• Biocatalysis, Bioremediation, Bioprocess engineering, Drug delivery, Infectious disease pathogenesis & drug discovery, Green chemistry, Medical biotechnology, Metabolic engineering, Synthetic biology, Tissue engineering • Metabolic & enzyme engineering to investigate and customise novel biosynthetic enzymes that can convert biomass-derived feedstocks into better fuels, pharmaceuticals and value-added chemicals
Peter Zandstra peter.zandstra@ubc.ca		Professor Director, Michael Smith Laboratories Director, School of Biomedical Engineering Canada Research Chair (Stem Cell Bioengineering)	• Multi-scale modeling of complex biology, synthetic stem cells & regenerative medicine, Synthetic niches to control stem cell fate, new therapies for blood diseases

Associate Members

Associate Membership in the School of Biomedical Engineering is an unofficial position given to a faculty member outside of the school when there is a need to have a formal arrangement to participate in teaching, research and service. This is not a joint appointment. To request membership please see here for more instructions: Associate Membership Application. Each application will be reviewed by the School’s leadership team.

Notes on Applying for Associate Membership

Term for associate membership is a maximum of 3 years. For renewal, a new application package must be submitted. It is expected that each member participate in at least one teaching and/or service activity (i.e. serve on a SBME committee, other than graduate supervisory committees). This activity must be clearly outline in the letter of intent.

Teaching and Committees

Teaching activities fall under our undergraduate and graduate curriculum umbrellas. Note that our students do take courses in other departments. SBME-specific courses are BMEG. They can be viewed here:

Undergraduate Curriculum
Graduate Curriculum

Our list of committees continues to expand as the school itself expands. Below is a list SBME committees:

Undergrad Curriculum Committee
Undergrad Admissions Committee
Graduate Program Scholarship/Awards Committee
Graduate Program Policy Committee
MEng Admissions Committee
PhD Rotation Committee
Research Awards Committee
Research Advisory Committee
Faculty Mentorship Committee
REDI Committee

Current Members:

Faculty	Home Department	Faculty Rank	Research Area
Purang Abolmaesumi purang@ece.ubc.ca	Electrical & Computer Engineering	Professor Canada Research Chair, Tier II (Biomedical Engineering)	• Machine learning, medical image analysis, and image-guided therapy
Mattia Bacca mbacca@mech.ubc.ca	Mechanical Engineering	Assistant Professor	• Mathematical and computational modeling of the active mechanical behavior of soft biological materials. • Cytoskeletal mechanics, damage mechanics, viscoelastic characterization, puncture mechanics, adhesion and fracture.
Mark Cembrowski mark.cembrowski@ubc.ca	Cellular & Physiological Sciences	Assistant Professor	• Experimental, computational • Mathematical approaches to understanding the neuroscience of memory
Mu Chiao muchiao@mech.ubc.ca	Mechanical Engineering	Professor	• Fabrication and packaging of micro-electro-mechanical systems for biological applications
Edward Conway ed.conway@ubc.ca	Medicine	Professor Canada Research Chair (Endothelial Cell Biology) Director, Centre for Blood Research	• Defining the molecular links between coagulation and innate immunity
Agnes d'Entremont adentremont@mech.ubc.ca	Mechanical Engineering	Associate Professor of Teaching	• Orthopaedic biomechanics • Human joint kinematics • Magnetic resonance imaging of the musculoskeletal system • Paediatric orthopaedics
Guy Dumont guyd@ece.ubc.ca	Electrical & Computer Engineering	Professor Co-director, Electrical and Computer Engineering in Medicine (ECEM)	• Adaptive control • Predictive control • Control of distributed parameters systems • Advanced process control • Applications of wavelet analysis • Biomedical applications of control • Pulp and paper process control
Leah Edelstein-Keshet keshet@math.ubc.ca	Mathematics	Professor	• Mathematical models of cell motility • Intracellular signaling and small GTPases, single and collective cell migration.
Sid Fels ssfels@ece.ubc.ca	Electrical & Computer Engineering	Professor	• Human computer interaction • Human 3D biomechanical modeling • Speech synthesis • Medical applications of modeling • Computer vision • Interactive arts and music
Rafeef Garbi rafeef@ece.ubc.ca	Electrical & Computer Engineering	Professor	• Medical image computing • Computer vision • Image analysis • Machine learning for medical imaging • Biomedical applications
Dana Grecov dgrecov@mech.ubc.ca	Mechanical Engineering	Associate Professor	• Liquid crystals and nanomaterials • Cellulose Nanocrystals • Biofluid Mechanics • Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics • Computational Fluid Dynamics • Rheology and Tribology
Matthias Gӧrges mgorges@cw.bc.ca	Anesthesiology, Pharmacology, & Therapeutics	Assistant Professor	• Patient monitoring alarms, medical displays, decision support systems, mobile health applications, and data integration/communication platforms
Jane Hill jane.hill@ubc.ca	Chemical & Biological Engineering	Professor	• Metabolomics, transcriptomics, diagnostics, infectious disease, tuberculosis, cystic fibrosis, mass spectrometry, chromatography, MEMS
Aly Karsan akarsan@bcgsc.ca	Pathology & Laboratory Medicine	Professor Medical Director, Centre for Clinical Genomics, Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, BC Cancer Agency Medical Director, Cancer Genetics Laboratory, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, BC Cancer Agency	• Normal and malignant hematopoiesis • Aging and inflammation • Epigenomics and stem cell states • Clinical genomics
Christian Kastrup ckastrup@msl.ubc.ca	Biochemistry and Molecular Biology	Associate Professor	• Biochemical engineering to solve problems related to hemostasis and thrombosis. • Investigate, utilize, and mimic the biochemistry and biophysical dynamics of blood coagulation to create innovative materials that perform new functions inside of blood vessels, and work to develop novel treatments for severe hemorrhage
Jay Kizhakkedathu jay@pathology.ubc.ca	Pathology	Professor	• Anticoagulation, biodegradable polymers, blood compatible polymers, polymer chemistry and therapeutics, proteomics
Peter Lansdorp plansdor@bccrc.ca	Medical Genetics	Professor	• DNA replication, epigenetics and stem cells, telomeres, genomic instability, aging and cancer, genetic analysis using single cell Strand-seq
Tim Lee tlee@bccrc.ca	Dermatology and Skin Science	Associate Professor	• Early skin cancer detection • Epidemiologic research on skin cancer
John Madden jmadden@ece.ubc.ca	Electrical & Computer Engineering	Professor Director, Advanced Materials and Process Engineering Laboratory	• Artificial muscle and application to medical devices • Photosynthetic photovoltaics • Super-capacitors, batteries, sensors, carbon nanotube device • Musculoskeletal oncology
Bassam Masri bas.masri@vch.ca	Orthopaedics	Professor Head, Department of Orthopaedics Head, Department of Orthopaedics at Vancouver Acute (Vancouver General and University Hospitals)	• Adult hip and knee reconstruction and replacement • Musculoskeletal oncology
Tim Murphy timothy.murphy@ubc.ca	Psychiatry	Professor	• Mouse brain imaging • Closed loop brain stimulation and feedback • Automation of mouse behavior • Machine learning as applied to neurodata
Santa Ono santa.ono@ubc.ca	Ophthamology & Visual Sciences; Microbiology & Immunology	Professor UBC President & Vice-Chancellor	• Immune system, eye inflammation and age-related macular degeneration
Tom Oxland toxland@icord.org	Orthopaedics & Mechanical Engineering	Professor Canada Research Chair (Spine Biomechanics) Associate Director, Preclinical Discovery Research, ICORD	• Spinal cord injury • Aging spine • Orthopaedic implants
Josef Penninger josef.penninger@ubc.ca	Medical Genetics	Professor Canada 150 Chair (Functional Genetics) Director, Life Sciences Institute	• Bone Remodeling, Cancer, Cardiovascular Regeneration, Immunopathology, Neurodegenerative Diseases • Blood vessel engineering, BH4, Haploid stem cells
James Piret james.piret@ubc.ca	Chemical & Biological Engineering	Professor	• Bioprocessing, biomedical, bioreactor and device engineering, bioprocess optimization and cell therapy biotechnology • Biotechnology, clinical translation, biological imaging, computational modeling and regenerative medicine
Lynn Raymond lynn.raymond@ubc.ca	Psychiatry	Professor Director, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health Louise A. Brown Chair, Neuroscience	• Brain synaptic and circuit function • Optogenetics • Electrophysiology • Models of neurodegenerative disease
Robert Rohling rohling@ece.ubc.ca	Electrical & Computer Engineering	Professor Director, the Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems (ICICS)	• Medical imaging, medical information systems, robotics, ultrasound imaging in both 2D and 3D • Calibration of robotic systems and their application in surgery
Tim Salcudean tims@ece.ubc.ca	Electrical & Computer Engineering	Professor Canada Research Chair (Intelligent Computer Interface Design) C.A. Laszlo Chair (Biomedical Engineering)	• Medical robotics • Image-guided interventions • Medical image analysis including cancer classification, ultrasound, elastography, teleoperation.
Peyman Servati peymans@ece.ubc.ca	Electrical & Computer Engineering	Professor	• Smart textile and wearable technology, flexible electronics, flexible solar cells and batteries, advanced nanomaterials • Disposable medical sensors
Kenichi Takahata takahata@ece.ubc.ca	Electrical & Computer Engineering	Professor Canada Research Chair (Advanced Micro/Nanofabrication and MEMS)	• Micromachined sensors and actuators • MEMS • Implantable micro devices • Micro-scale wireless sensing/control • 3-D micro fabrication techniques • Micro electrodischarge machining and control • Microplasma control and application
Shuo Tang tang@ece.ubc.ca	Electrical & Computer Engineering	Professor	• Biophotonics • Biomedical optics • Optical tissue imaging instrumentation • Optical coherence tomography • Multiphoton microscopy
Mike Van der Loos vdl@mech.ubc.ca	Mechanical Engineering	Associate Professor Associate Head, External and Industry Relations (Mechanical Engineering) Director, Collaborative Advanced Robotics and Intelligent Systems Lab (ICICS)	• Inherently safe design of mobile manipulation robotic systems • Development and testing of mechatronic exercise systems for stroke therapy • Development of robotic tools for improved understanding and treatment of human balance disorders • Exploration of ethical design principles for robot interfaces and neurotechnologies
Konrad Walus konradw@ece.ubc.ca	Electrical & Computer Engineering	Professor	• Nanoelectronic devices and circuits • Quantum-dot cellular automata • Single-electron transistors • Quantum mechanical simulations
Alexander Weber aweber@bcchr.ca	Pediatrics	Assistant Professor	• Non-invasive imaging techniques • Combining diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), myelin water imaging (MWI), and susceptibility-based imaging techniques • Imaging the developing brain
Cheryl Wellington cheryl.wellington@ubc.ca	Pathology and Laboratory Medicine	Professor	• Genetic and environmental risk factors for dementia, including apolipoprotein E (apoE) metabolism, history of traumatic brain injury (TBI), and cerebrovascular dysfunction
David Wilson david.wilson@ubc.ca	Orthopaedics	Professor Co-Director, Centre for Hip Health & Mobility	• Hip, knee and spine mechanics • Causes and treatments of osteoarthritis • Medical imaging and medical image processing • Orthopaedic sports medicine
Lyndia Wu lwu@mech.ubc.ca	Mechanical Engineering	Assistant Professor	• Injury biomechanics • Soft tissue biomechanics • Traumatic brain injury • Sleep biomechanics • Sensors and instrumentation • Data mining and machine learning

	Faculty	Home Institute	Faculty Rank	Research Area
	Freda Miller fredam@sickkids.ca	University of Toronto & Hospital for Sick Children	Professor Canada Research Chair, Developmental Neurobiology Senior Scientist, Hospital for Sick Children	• Neural stem cells • Neurotrophin regulation of neuronal survival • Growth and connectivity • Eole of p53 family in the nervous system • Molecular regulation of neurogenesis
	Stephanie Willerth willerth@uvic.ca	University of Victoria	Associate Professor Canada Research Chair, Biomedical Engineering Acting Director, Centre for Biomedical Research (University of Victoria)	• Tissue engineering • Regenerative medicine • Biomaterials scaffolds for controlling stem cell differentiation

Faculty

Home Institute

Faculty Rank

Research Area

Freda Miller

fredam@sickkids.ca

University of Toronto & Hospital for Sick Children

Professor

Canada Research Chair, Developmental Neurobiology

Senior Scientist, Hospital for Sick Children

• Neural stem cells
• Neurotrophin regulation of neuronal survival
• Growth and connectivity
• Eole of p53 family in the nervous system
• Molecular regulation of neurogenesis

Stephanie Willerth

willerth@uvic.ca

University of Victoria

Associate Professor

Canada Research Chair, Biomedical Engineering

Acting Director, Centre for Biomedical Research (University of Victoria)

• Tissue engineering
• Regenerative medicine
• Biomaterials scaffolds for controlling stem cell differentiation

	Faculty
Anthony Chan anthony_chan@bcit.ca	Research Areas • Assistive technology • Medical device development • Healthcare technology management Affiliation • Program Head • Faculty Member British Columbia Institute of Technology, Biomedical Engineering, School of Health Sciences
Bruno Jaggi bjaggi@bme.ubc.ca	Research Areas • Develop a non-invasive blood measurement and analysis device using specialized optical spectroscopy Affiliation • Adjunct Professor • Engineering Advisor Simon Fraser University LivSpek Medical Technologies Inc.

Faculty

Anthony Chan
anthony_chan@bcit.ca

Research Areas
• Assistive technology
• Medical device development
• Healthcare technology management

Affiliation
• Program Head
• Faculty Member
British Columbia Institute of Technology, Biomedical Engineering, School of Health Sciences

Bruno Jaggi
bjaggi@bme.ubc.ca

Research Areas
• Develop a non-invasive blood measurement and analysis device using specialized optical spectroscopy

Affiliation
• Adjunct Professor
• Engineering Advisor
Simon Fraser University
LivSpek Medical Technologies Inc.