Dr Tania Bubela
Provost & Vice President, Academic
From 2017 to 2024, she was Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University. Previously she was a Professor in the School of Public Health and Adjunct Professor in the Alberta School of Business at the University of Alberta, Canada. She is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Dr Bubela holds a PhD in biology from the University of Sydney and a Juris Doctor from the University of Alberta. She joined the University of Alberta faculty in 2004 after clerking for the Honourable Louise Arbour at the Supreme Court of Canada, articling at Field Law LLP in Edmonton, and being admitted to the bar (Law Society of Alberta) in 2005.
Her research programme in intellectual property and health law related to translational biomedical research brings together her legal training and a PhD in biology and expertise in genetics and molecular biology. Additionally, her research focuses on large collaborative science networks in genomics, gene therapy, and stem cell biology, addressing barriers to the effective translation of new technologies. These are varied and include ethical issues, effective communication, equitable sharing of risks and benefits, commercialization/open science strategies, regulation, and reimbursement.
Dr Bubela provides advice for government health and science agencies as well as life sciences research communities, and patient organisations. Her research is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Stem Cell Network, Genome Canada, Genome BC, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research and Alberta Innovates, among others. She co-leads a research programme on the development of cost-effective personalized oncology technologies with BC Cancer and is working on an open science drug discovery platform for pandemic preparedness and rare/neglected diseases.
Dr Bubela has over 150 publications in law, ethics, medical and science policy journals including BMJ, Nature, Nature Biotechnology, Science, Cell Stem Cell, PLoS Biology, Trends in Biotechnology, American Journal of Bioethics and Science Translational Medicine.
