Several members of the UBC Department of Medicine are among the 2025 recipients of the Michael Smith Health Research BC Health Professional-Investigator (HP-I) Awards, securing new funding to advance transformational health research.
These awards support health professionals actively involved in patient care to strengthen their research programs, train the next generation of scientists, and translate discoveries into practice to benefit people across B.C.
This year’s Department of Medicine recipients are addressing critical health challenges including solid organ transplantation, Parkinson’s disease, precision medicine in nephrology, telehealth, and chronic kidney disease:
Dr. Sara Belga
Project: Immune Monitoring to Predict Risk of Clinically Significant CMV Events after Solid Organ Transplantation (The Predict-CMV SOT Study)
Host Institution: Vancouver Coastal Health
Research Location: Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute
Dr. Jason Chan
Project: Dynamic functional brain imaging of the motor and cognitive effects of dopaminergic medications in patients with Parkinson’s disease
Host Institution: Fraser Health Authority
Research Location: Fraser Health Authority, SFU ImageTech Lab
Dr. Karen Tran
Project: Tele health for Emergency-Community Continuity of Care Connectivity via Home Telemonitoring Blood Pressure (TEC4HOME-BP)-a Randomized Controlled Trial
Host Institution: UBC
Research Location: Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute
Dr. Mark Elliott
Project: Integrating Genetics Care in Nephrology to Study and Empower Precision Medicine
Host Institution: UBC
Research Location: St. Paul’s Hospital
Dr. Michelle Wong
Project: Interactions between nutritional status, gut microbiota, and metabolomic profiles in patients with chronic kidney disease
Host Institution: UBC
Research Location: BC Provincial Renal Agency, UBC
We congratulate our Department of Medicine awardees for their leadership and commitment to advancing health research in B.C. and beyond.
More information: https://healthresearchbc.ca/news_article/2025-scholar-and-health-professional-investigator-awardees/