Fundamentally Transforming How Discovery Becomes Care
Promising health innovations move from discovery to care only when they have strong evidence, clear regulatory and reimbursement pathways, and deliver real impact for patients. The UBC Academy of Translational Medicine brings interdisciplinary research, regulatory science, applied expertise, and workforce development together to make that happen.
Upcoming Event
Getting to Regulatory Approval: Strategies To Move Your Discovery Forward
Date: Sep 25, 2026
Time: 12:00 PM Vancouver
The translation gap
Promising discoveries get lost in translation.
Evidence often comes too late or in the wrong form, and research, regulatory strategy, and workforce development operate separately. Developers, scientists, and health systems lack shared guidance on what evidence a decision needs, and Canada’s scientific excellence doesn’t always translate into patient impact, economic value, and health system resilience.
Why translation matters
Better health and shared prosperity reinforce one another.
Healthier communities
Faster access to safe, effective, sustainable, and high-value innovations improves outcomes for patients, families, and communities.
A stronger workforce
Skilled professionals across research, regulatory science, and implementation give Canada the capacity to translate discovery into care.
A thriving life sciences sector
Research, policy, and investment create a stronger innovation ecosystem, and more opportunities to improve health.
Shared prosperity
A stronger economy creates greater capacity to invest in health, research, and the next generation of innovators.
Building the capabilities Canada needs to move discovery into care
The Academy builds the research, regulatory, implementation, commercialization, and workforce capabilities Canada needs to develop promising ideas here—and move them into practice.
Applied expertise
Translational Platform
Coordinates expertise in regulatory affairs, clinical trials, payer strategy, and commercialization to guide innovations across the entire translational pathway.
Research and methods
Regulatory Science Lab
An interdisciplinary lab developing methods, evidence, and policy insight for regulatory and reimbursement decisions.
Workforce capability
Training and Workforce Development
Turns current knowledge, methods, and practical experience into learning that strengthens Canada’s life sciences workforce.
The feedback loop
Knowledge moves in both directions.
Open each step to see how real cases, research, and training continuously improve one another.
1. Real-world evidence sharpens research questions
Work through the Health Translational Platform reveals recurring barriers, emerging challenges, and opportunities for new regulatory science research.
2. Research improves practice
RSL methods and policy insight create frameworks for the platform and strengthen evidence strategies and decision pathways for individual innovations.
3. Current knowledge strengthens the workforce
Thought leadership, state-of-the-art methods, practical cases, and professional experience become relevant training for learners and professionals.
4. The health system becomes more capable and responsive
Learners and professionals build the capability to conduct research, become thought leaders, support innovation, and improve patients’ lives and outcomes.
5. Better health strengthens Canada
Improved health supports people, communities, and the workforce, while a stronger life sciences ecosystem builds the talent and economic capacity to improve health again.
The team
An interdisciplinary team with national reach and global perspective.
Internationally recognized scientists and experienced experts work across regulatory science, health economics, real-world evidence, policy, implementation, and professional education. Our expertise is sought internationally, including in the UK and Australia, while our work engages regulatory and health-system communities across Canada.
The Academy’s impact
Evidence of a growing platform
Select a card to explore what each number represents.
47Peer-reviewed publications
Research outputs strengthening evidence, policy, and translational decision-making.
93Micro-credentials awarded
Learners and professionals building practical capability in regulatory affairs.
1.63MLife-years in data holdings
Longitudinal data supporting real-world evidence and health-system research.
From the Regulatory Science Lab
Latest research
JNCI · 2025
Patient and population impacts of multi-gene panel and pembrolizumab coverage in metastatic melanoma
JCO Precision Oncology · 2025
Clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of multigene panel sequencing in advanced melanoma
Frontiers in Medicine · 2025
Putting the substance in substantial evidence: An evidence-based approach to flexible drug regulation
Across the Academy
Highlights
Current learning opportunities and conversations from across the Academy.
Featured learning opportunity
Regulatory Affairs in the Life Sciences
Build practical regulatory knowledge through UBC’s flexible micro-certificate.
In conversation
Q&A with Dr. Dean Regier
How regulatory science can fuel biomedical innovation and improve health.
Now open
Registration for 2026/2027
Registration is open for the fifth offering of the Regulatory Affairs micro-certificate.
The invitation
Find your place at the Academy
Choose the next step that best reflects what you want to accomplish.
Have an innovation?
Get coordinated guidance across the translational pathway.
Have a research question?
Collaborate on methods, evidence, data, or policy questions.
Want to build capability?
Explore practical training for life sciences professionals.
Build a partnership
Work with ATM across research, policy, training, or implementation.
Join the conversation
Attend an upcoming event or conversation from across the Academy.
Not sure where to begin?
Tell us what you are working on, and we will help identify the right route.
Highlights
Explore current learning opportunities and conversations from across the Academy.
Learn with us
Regulatory Affairs in the Life Sciences
Build practical regulatory knowledge through UBC’s flexible micro-certificate.
In conversation
Q&A with Dr. Dean Regier
How regulatory science can fuel biomedical innovation and improve health.
Now open
Registration for 2026/2027
Registration is open for the fifth offering of the Regulatory Affairs micro-certificate.
The invitation
Find your place at the Academy
Choose the next step that best reflects what you want to accomplish.
Have an innovation?
Have a research question?
Want to build capability?
Build a partnership
Join the conversation
Not sure where to begin?
Tell us what you are working on, and we will help identify the right route.