Biomedical & Life Sciences
Sciences centered around living organisms are key to health and food production. Addressing the rise in chronic non-communicable illnesses, we advance diagnostics and therapeutics with focuses on medical physics, biology and chemistry of diseases (e.g., neurodegenerative disorders, cancer, metabolic and digestive conditions, microbiomes, etc.), and the development of therapeutic bioproducts. Towards sustainable agriculture and food security, our genomic and precision breeding approaches will preserve, utilize and improve upon crops and soil microbial systems with UBC Okanagan’s West Campus Lands and the larger agriculture networks of the Okanagan region as our living laboratory and experiential education environment. Furthermore, our emerging “one-health” activities start connecting life sciences with the environment to address questions around sustainable and balanced health systems at the face of climate change.
Undergraduate Janaeya Baher holds a 3D printed lung model created using a light-based bioprinter. Equipped with five 3D printers, Dr. Osei’s lab can develop cutting-edge lung models to understand disease mechanisms and develop potential new treatments.
Dr. Chase Mason examines pepper plants with students as part of the Plant Breeding Initiative inside UBC Okanagan’s Plant Growth Facility.