A message from Dermot Kelleher, Dean, Faculty of Medicine and Vice-President, Health, UBC.
Every day, faculty, staff and students make remarkable scientific breakthroughs that bring us ever closer to solving life’s most pressing health challenges. The question is, how do we bring our research to patients sooner and safely, in the form of lifesaving medicine? This is perhaps the most urgent question in medicine today — and the focus of our latest edition of Pathways.
In this issue we explore how the UBC Faculty of Medicine is leading the push to accelerate the development of these lifesaving medicines in British Columbia, bringing new hope to patients and their families.
Here in B.C. we are building an extraordinary bio-innovation ecosystem — encompassing academic, health and research institution partners, along with manufacturing, industry and biotechnology firms, and other collaborators such as the Business Council of B.C. — where the all-important work of world-class innovation and translation of scientific discoveries can happen efficiently in one place.
We at UBC believe that, working together and with key strategic investments, we can cut the time it currently takes to transform brilliant ideas into patient-ready treatments by 50 per cent or more, saving more lives sooner and closer to home.
This issue of Pathways also features inspiring stories about how UBC scientists are expanding the technology behind mRNA vaccines to tackle diseases like cancer; developing a wildly inventive stem cell-based treatment for Type-1 diabetes; accelerating drug design with the help of leading-edge artificial intelligence, and more. You’ll learn how UBC’s newly created Academy of Translational Medicine is bringing it all together in collaboration with our partners.
UBC is revolutionizing the way we treat disease, but strategic gaps still exist and support is needed to realize the full potential of our work. Guest columnist Greg D’Avignon, president and CEO of the B.C. Business Council, offers insight about how B.C.’s bio-innovation and life sciences sector can transform medicine and create new economic opportunities, as well as about what’s needed to build on our current momentum.
The need for speed has never been more important. Lives depend on it. Together, let’s bring the future of medicine to everyone sooner — in B.C. and around the world. The time is now.
This message was sent to all faculty, staff and learners in the Faculty of Medicine.
