Dr. Brian Kwon

Headshot of Dr. Brian Kwon

Principal Investigator

MD (Queen’s University), FRCSC [Orthopaedic Surgery] (University of British Columbia), PhD [Neuroscience] (University of British Columbia), Spine Fellowship (Rothman Institute at Thomas Jefferson University)

Canada Research Chair in Spinal Cord Injury
Professor, Department of Orthopaedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia
Spine Surgeon, Vancouver Spine Program, Vancouver General Hospital
Dvorak Chair in Spine Trauma
Associate Director, Clinical Research, ICORD
Director, Vancouver Spine Research Program

Research Interests

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Dr. Kwon is a surgeon-scientist with advanced training in spine surgery and also a PhD in neuroscience. He is a Professor in the UBC Department of Orthopaedics. As an attending orthopaedic spine surgeon at Vancouver General Hospital his practice is focused on the management of adult spine trauma, spinal cord injuries, and non-traumatic conditions such as spine infection, deformity, and degeneration. As a neuroscientist and Principal Investigator at ICORD, Dr. Kwon runs an active basic/translational research laboratory. Dr. Kwon is currently also serving as the Associate Director, Clinical Research, for ICORD and is the Director of Research for the Vancouver Spine Research Program.

Dr. Kwon’s primary research interest is in spinal cord injury. During his residency, he met many young patients on the spinal cord unit whose lives had been devastated by SCI; this motivated him to pursue a career in spine surgery and a PhD in neuroscience. Now, as a surgeon-scientist, his research interests in SCI span the translational continuum from basic bench research all the way to clinical trials. His research program is best characterized by “bedside back to bench” and “bench to bedside” bi-directional translation.
Currently, Dr. Kwon is leading a North American clinical trial in acute SCI to improve guidelines for the management of patients in the early stages of their injury and also to establish biomarkers of injury by providing a more complete picture of the pathophysiology of acute human SCI. His interest in the human pathophysiology of SCI has led him to establish the International Spinal Cord Injury Biobank (ISCIB). In the laboratory, he has developed new models to facilitate the preclinical evaluation of novel therapeutic strategies and to also better understand clinical observations from acute SCI patients.

Dr. Kwon loves working with ICORD because of the multidisciplinary interface between science and medicine. He enjoys the ease with which his research can translate from “bench-to-bedside” and “bedside back to bench” with ICORD situated right on the campus of Vancouver General Hospital, the provincial referral centre for all acute spinal cord injuries in British Columbia.

Learn more about Dr. Kwon’s research and the Kwon Lab on their website at kwonlab.ca.

 

Recent Collaborations:

The interdisciplinary nature of Dr. Kwon’s research program has facilitated the establishment of strong collaborations both within and beyond UBC. Within UBC, he collaborates directly on studies of spinal cord injury with a core group of researchers, which include Dr. Peter Cripton and Dr. Tom Oxland who study injury biomechanics and prevention, Dr. Wolfram Tetzlaff who studies neuroregeneration, Dr. Babak Shadgan who studies optical hemodynamic monitoring, Dr. Chris West who studies cardiac function, Dr.John Kramer who studies neuropathic pain, Drs. Cornelia Laule and Piotr Kozlowski who study advanced MRI, Drs. Wayne Moore and Veronica Hirsh-Reinshagen who are neuro-pathology experts, and Drs. Alex Kavanagh and Lynn Stothers who are neuro-urologists.

In addition to this core group, Dr. Kwon collaborates with researchers from numerous disciplines across UBC including Dr. Judy Illes (Canada Research Chair in Neuroethics) to study the ethics of stem cell treatments for SCI. He has also generated research collaborations with Dr. Bruce McManus, the Director of the iCAPTURE Centre at St. Paul’s Hospital and with Dr. Leonard Foster (Dept. of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology) at the Centre for High Through-put Biology (ChiBi) to conduct proteomic assessments after acute SCI in human patients and in experimental models.

Beyond UBC, Dr. Kwon has established strategic, project-based collaborations with the clinical community and scholars at other Canadian and international institutions. As the Principal Investigator of the Canadian Multicenter CSF Pressure and Biomarker (CAMPER) study, Dr. Kwon has established direct collaborations with spine surgical colleagues in London (Dr. Chris Bailey), Montreal (Dr. Jean-Marc Mac-Thiong), Toronto (Dr. Jeff Wilson), Halifax (Dr. Sean Christie) and San Francisco (Dr. Sanjay Dhall).
Outside of UBC, Dr. Kwon is working closely with a number of collaborators to study bladder function (Dr. Margot Damaser, Cleveland Clinic) and to study neural regeneration (Dr. Yu-Shang Lee, Cleveland Clinic). He has also been studying an acute neuroprotective strategy utilizing nanoparticles with Dr. Vinod Labhasetwar, also of the Cleveland Clinic.

Major Findings:

Biomarkers are important for clinically validating new therapies. Dr. Kwon has found biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) which indicate the pathophysiology of SCI.

CSF pressure is an important factor in secondary damage after traumatic SCI. Lowering pressure by draining CSF is a common technique for treating certain aortic aneurysms, but has not been evaluated for treatment of SCI. Dr. Kwon found that CSF drainage was not associated with negative effects when used to treat acute traumatic SCI.

For more of Dr. Kwon’s major findings, please see the selected publications below, as well as his recent publications listed at the bottom of the page:

Techniques employed in the lab:

  • Behavioural assessments
  • Biochemistry proteomics
  • Clinical trails
  • Histology
  • Microdialysis
  • Surgery

Affiliations with organizations and societies:

  • Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of British Columbia
  • North American Spine Society
  • Society for Neuroscience (SFN)
  • Scoliosis Research Society (SRS)
  • Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute (VCHRI)
  • Vancouver General Hospital (VGH)

Awards

Some of Dr. Kwon’s recent major awards and accomplishments include:

  • Craig H. Neilsen Visionary Prize, 2020
  • Tator-Turnbull Award for SCI and TBI Research, 2019 (Barbara Turnbull Foundation and Brain Canada Foundation)
  • Apple Award, 2018 (American Spinal Injury Association)
  • Best Paper Award (Canadian Spine Society Annual Meeting, 2016)Best Paper Award (Canadian Spine Society Annual Meeting, 2016)
  • Top Basic Science Poster Award (Cervical Spine Research Society Annual Meeting, 2015)
  • Cure Advisory Committee Chair (Rick Hansen Institute, 2014)
  • J. Eduoard Samson Award (Canadian Orthopaedic Foundation, 2014)
  • Canada Research Chair Tier 2 in Spinal Cord Injury (2012)
  • Bringing Clinical Renown to Vancouver General Hospital (Vancouver Coastal Health Awards of Excellence, 2011)
  • 2nd Place, Best Paper Presentation for “Development of a Novel Porcine Model of Spinal Cord Injury” (International Conference on Spinal Cord Medicine and Rehabilitation [Combined ASIA-ISCOS Meeting], 2011)
  • American-British-Canadian Travelling Fellow (Canadian Orthopaedic Association, 2011)
  • Kappa Delta Young Investigator Award (AAOS/Orthopaedic Research Society, 2010)
  • Business in Vancouver’s Top 40 under 40 (2009)
  • Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar Award (MSFHR, 2007)
  • Hibbs Award in Top Basic Science Research Paper (Scoliosis Research Society Annual Meeting, 2006)
  • Whitecloud Award in Clinical Research (IMAST, 2005)

Current lab members

Volunteers Undergraduate Students Medical Residents Master Students PhD Students Postdoctoral Fellows Research Staff
Christopher Dong Imogen Porter Michael Rizzuto Tolu Malomo Sigrun Jarlsdottir Dr. Cameron Gee Femke Streijger
Wendy Tsai Mehara Seneviratne Ryan Chan Adam Doelman Dr. Alexandra Williams Kitty So
Alex Huang Joseph Kim Aysha Allard Brown Dr. Ryan Hoiland Neda Tearle
Husain Kankroliwala Shahbaz Askari Shehnani Basnayake
Amir Borjali Kevin Dong
Amardeep Sekhon Avril Billingsley
Jay Ethridge
Daniel Rogers
Jing Wang
Eslam Abdelaziz
Sureyah Nassimbwa
Rochelle Newsome
Adam Velenosi
Allan Aludino
Leilani Reichl
Angela Tsang
Miko McKenzie
Joey Chan
Xianhong Shan
Svitlana Haia
Lu Pan

*graduated in the past year

Trainee Awards

Year Trainee Award
2024 Ryan Chan 1st prize Poster Award – Master level (WL McLeod Award), Ryan Chan
2024 Cameron Gee 2nd prize Poster award – Postdoc level, ICORD Annual Research Meeting (March 06-07)
2024 Tolu Malomo 1st Place Winner of Best Paper award (Debbie Scarlet Award), Canadian Spine Society Meeting. Feb 28-Mar 2 2024
2024 Adam Doelman Faculty of Medicine Graduate Award, UBC
2024 Aysha Allard Brown 2nd prize Poster award – Postdoc level, ICORD Annual Research Meeting (March 06-07)
2024 Aysha Allard Brown President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award, UBC
2023 Kitty So 2024 VCHRI Research Excellence Staff Award, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute
2023 Tolu Malomo ICORD Trainee Travel Award
2023 Garrett Frank ICORD Trainee Travel Award
2023 Garrett Frank 3rd prize poster award – PhD level, ICORD Trainee Symposium
2023 Garrett Frank Northern Telecom Graduate Fellowship, UBC
2023 Garrett Frank Walter C Koerner Fellowship, UBC
2023 Garrett Frank Josephine T Berthier Fellowship, UBC
2023 Katharina Raschdorf Faculty of Medicine Graduate Award, UBC
2023 Katharina Raschdorf Trainee Professional Development Award, Society for Neuroscience (SfN)
2023 Katharina Raschdorf Shaughnessy Hospital Volunteer Society Fellowship in Health Care (Affiliated Fellowship), University of British Columbia (UBC)
2023 Katharina Raschdorf Neural Repair (Spinal Cord) Endowment, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia (UBC)
2023 Ryan Chan 2nd Place Winner of Best Oral Presentation, University of British Columbia (UBC) Pathology Day (June 1)
2023 Femke Streijger 2023 VCHRI Research Excellence Staff Award, VCHRI
2023 Aysha Allard Brown Four Year Doctoral Fellowship (4YF), UBC
2023 Aysha Allard Brown 1st Place Poster Presentation; PhD Category, ICORD Annual Research Meeting
2023 Aysha Allard Brown President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award, UBC
2023 Aysha Allard Brown Canada Graduate Scholarship – Doctoral Award (CGSD), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
2023 Aysha Allard Brown ICORD Trainee Travel Award
2023 Adam Doelman ICORD Trainee Travel Award
2023 Adam Doelman ICORD International Exchange Award, The Rick Hansen Foundation
2023 Adam Doelman President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award, UBC
2023 Adam Doelman Rising Star Award, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute (VCHRI)
2023 Adam Doelman 1st Place Winner of The Best Oral Presentation Category, 2023 8th Annual Meeting Society for Pelvic Research (SPR). Dec 07-Dec 09 2023
2023-2024 Sigrún Jarlsdóttir International Tuition Award, UBC
2023 Sigrún Jarlsdóttir 3rd prize poster award – PhD level, ICORD Trainee Symposium
2023 Sigrún Jarlsdóttir ICORD Trainee Travel Award
2023 Sigrún Jarlsdóttir International Tuition Award, UBC
2023 Sigrún Jarlsdóttir President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award, UBC
2022/2023 Katharina Raschdorf President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award, UBC
2022/2023 Katharina Raschdorf International Tuition Award, UBC
2022 Katharina Raschdorf 3rd Place Poster Award, GF Strong Rehabilitation Research Day
2022 Katharina Raschdorf 1st Place Poster Award, Canadian Spinal Cord Injury Research Meeting (CSCIRM)
2022 Sigrún Jarlsdóttir President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award, UBC
2022 Sigrún Jarlsdóttir International Tuition Award, UBC
2022 Sigrún Jarlsdóttir ICORD trainee travel award, The Rick Hansen Foundation
2022 Sigrún Jarlsdóttir SIE Scholarship 2022-2023, Soroptimist International of Europe
2022 Farnaz Sahragard SPIE Education Scholarship, The International Society for Optics and Photonics
2022 Farnaz Sahragard ICORD Trainee Travel Award, The Rick Hansen Foundation
2022 Farnaz Sahragard ISCoS (International Spinal Cord Society) Registration Fee Award, ICORD
2022 Adam Doelman President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award, UBC
2022 Adam Doelman William, Sadie and Edwin Rowan Bursary in Medicine, UBC
2022 Aysha Allard Brown President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award, UBC
2022 Aysha Allard Brown ICORD Trainee Travel Award, The Rick Hansen Foundation
2022 Aysha Allard Brown Neural Repair (Spinal Cord) Endowment, DMCBH
2022 Aysha Allard Brown Top Poster Award; Student Trainee Category, International Spinal Cord Society (ISCoS) Annual Scientific Meeting
2022 Aysha Allard Brown 3rd Place Poster Presentation; PhD Category, ICORD Trainee Symposium
2022 Aysha Allard Brown Edward Squires Memorial Fellowship (Faculty of Medicine Graduate Award), UBC
2022 Katharina Raschdorf 1st Place Poster Presentation PhD Category, 2022 ICORD Virtual Annual Research Meeting
2022 Amanda Cheung Semi-Final Honourable Mention, UBC Three Minute Thesis
2022 Amanda Cheung Final Top 5, UBC Three Minute Thesis
2022 Amanda Cheung 2nd place Three Minute Thesis Heat, VCH Research Institute
2021-2022 Tolu Malomo UBC President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award
2021 Farnaz Sahragard UBC Graduate Covid program delay tuition award
2021 Farnaz Sahragard SPIE Travel Fund, International Society for Optics and Photonics
2021 Farnaz Sahragard ICORD Trainee Travel Award
2021 Farnaz Sahragard 1st Place Poster Presentation Masters Category, ICORD Trainee Symposium
2021 Farnaz Sahragard Graduate Student Poster Presentation Award, Pathology Day
2021 Adam Doelman ICORD Trainee Travel Award
2021 Adam Doelman 1st Place Oral Presentation PhD Category, ICORD Trainee Symposium
2021 Adam Doelman DMCBH Endowment Award Competition (General Award), UBC Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health
2021 Adam Doelman Award of Excellence (Silver Category), Canadian Student Health Research Forum (UManitoba)
2021 Adam Doelman President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award
2021 Aysha Allard Brown Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarship-Master’s Award (CGS M)
2021-2022 Sigrún Jarlsdóttir UBC President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award
2021-2022 Sigrún Jarlsdóttir UBC International Tuition Award
2021 Katharina Raschdorf UBC International Tuition Award
2021 Katharina Raschdorf UBC Faculty of Medicine Graduate Award
2021 Katharina Raschdorf UBC President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award
2021 Katharina Raschdorf ICORD Trainee Travel Award
2021 Aysha Allard Brown ICORD Trainee Travel Award
2021 Amanda Cheung Honourable Mention, Canadian Student Health Research Forum (CSHRF) Poster Presentation
2021 Amanda Cheung VCHRI Rising Star Award
2021 Amanda Cheung UBC Neuroscience Conference Award (UBC Neuroscience)
2021 Amanda Cheung UBC Neuroscience Publication of the Year (UBC Neuroscience)
2021 Amanda Cheung 1st Place Biomedical Presentation (UBC Science Communication Conference)
2020 Amanda Cheung 2nd Place Podium Presentation (UBC, Future of Health Research Day)
2020 Amanda Cheung 3rd Place Poster Presentation (ICORD, Trainee Symposium)
2020-2024 Amanda Cheung UBC 4 Year Fellowship (in title)
2020-2022 Amanda Cheung UBC Killam Travel Allowance
2020-2022 Amanda Cheung UBC Killam Doctoral Scholarship (in title)
2020-2023 Amanda Cheung Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (CIHR)
2020 Amanda Cheung Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship (SPIE)
2020 Amanda Cheung President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award (UBC)
2020 Aysha Allard Brown Faculty of Medicine Summer Student Research Program (SSRP) Award (UBC)
2020 Aysha Allard Brown Faculty of Medicine Graduate Award (UBC)
2020 Adam Doelman President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award (UBC)
2020 Adam Doelman 1st Place Oral Presentation (UBC, FoM Research Trainee Day and Lecture Series)
2020 Farnaz Sahragard Faculty of Medicine Graduate Award (UBC)
2020 Martin Keung People’s Choice Winner (UBC, Future of Health Research Day)
2020 Tolu Malomo President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award (UBC)
2020 Tolu Malomo Faculty of Medicine Graduate Award (UBC)
2020 Sigrún Jarlsdóttir President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award (UBC)
2020-2021 Sigrún Jarlsdóttir Faculty of Medicine Graduate Award (UBC)
2020 Sigrún Jarlsdóttir International Tuition Award (UBC)
2018 Seth Tigchelaar Honourable mention in the PhD category – poster presentation (ICORD, Annual Research Meeting)
2018 Seth Tigchelaar VCHR – 1st place 3-min thesis presentation (VCHR, 3-Minute Thesis Competition)
2018 Seth Tigchelaar 1st place poster presentation (Undergraduate Neuroscience Conference)
2018 Amanda Cheung Top Trainee Poster Presentation (UBC, Faculty of Medicine)
2018 Kevin Dong 2nd place poster presentation in the Staff category (ICORD, Annual Research Meeting)
2018 Rishab Gupta Poster presentation (Undergraduate Neuroscience conference)
2017 Seth Tigchelaar 1st place poster presentation-W.L. McLeod Award (ICORD, Annual Research Meeting)
2017 Seth Tigchelaar 1st place Poster presentation (Vancouver University Women’s Club: The Power of Future Minds)
2017 Seth Tigchelaar 3rd place 3-minute thesis presentation (3-minute Thesis competition, International Universitas-21, University of Queensland)
2017 Seth Tigchelaar 1st place Overall Poster presentation (ICORD, trainee symposium)
2017 Seth Tigchelaar 1st place Overall Poster presentation (GF Strong Research Day)
2017 Seth Tigchelaar Most new & Exciting Research – Poster Award (ICORD SCI Symposium)
2017 Seth Tigchelaar 2nd Place 3-Minute Thesis Finals (UBC)
2017 Seth Tigchelaar 3rd Place 3-Minute Thesis Semi-Finals (UBC)
2017 Seth Tigchelaar 2nd Place 3-Minute Thesis VCHRI Heat (UBC)
2017 Seth Tigchelaar People’s Choice Award, 3-Minute Thesis VCHRI Heat (UBC)
2016 Seth Tigchelaar 1st Place Poster Presentation (Neuroscience Extravaganza, UBC – DMCBH)
2016 Seth Tigchelaar 1st Place Poster Presentation (ICORD – Trainee Symposium)
2016 Seth Tigchelaar 2nd Place Poster Presentation (GenomeBC Research Day)
2016 Seth Tigchelaar University Washington Summer Statistics Course Scholarship (University of Washington)
2016 Seth Tigchelaar ICORD Trainee Travel Award (ICORD)
2016 Ana Gheorghe 2nd place poster in the Masters category at the Annual Research Meeting (ICORD)
Neda Manouchehri 1st place poster in the Staff category at the Annual Research Meeting (ICORD)
Femke Streijger Staff Award of Excellence in Research (ICORD)
Seth Tigchelaar Honorable Mention in the PhD Category at the Annual Research Meeting (ICORD)
2015 Elena Okon 1st place poster in the Staff category at the Annual Research Meeting (ICORD)
Kitty So 2nd place poster in the Staff category at the Annual Research Meeting (ICORD)
2014 Neda Manouchehri 1st place poster in the Staff category at the Annual Research Meeting (ICORD)
Elena Okon Staff Excellence Award (ICORD)
Kitty So 3rd place poster in the Staff category at the Annual Research Meeting (ICORD)
Femke Streijger 2nd place poster in the Staff category at the Annual Research Meeting (ICORD)
2013 Femke Streijger 1st place poster in the Staff category at the Annual Research Meeting (ICORD)
2012 Jae Lee President’s Staff Award for Emerging Leadership (UBC)
2011 Claire F. Jones Medtronic Spinal Research Award for Best Paper (Spine Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting)
2010 Emily R. Dodwell
  • Frank B. Smith Resident Research Award for Best Paper (North Pacific Orthopaedic Society, 85th Annual Meeting)
  • 2nd Place Poster Award (Canadian Association of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Annual Meeting)
Claire F. Jones Margaret H. Hines Award for Top Podium Presentation (Ohio Injury Biomechanics Symposium)

Current Opportunities in the Lab

Dr. Kwon is currently seeking a PhD student to join his research team. This position will be jointly supervised by Dr. Kwon and Dr. Femke Streijger, Research Associate, ICORD. Starting salary is $21,000 per year. You will be expected to apply for competitive external funding. Other funding opportunities (Teaching Assistant or Work Learn positions) may also be possible. To be eligible for this position, you should have an M.Sc. from a recognized university and be accepted by the Faculty of Graduate Studies at the University of British Columbia. Your verbal and written English communication skills must be excellent. Competitive candidates will have extensive experience with in-vivo micro-dialysis, ELISA and multiplex analysis, immunohistochemistry, microscopy, FACS and animal behavioral testing. Preference will be given to applicants with published scientific manuscripts and at least one first-author publication in the field.

To apply, please send a cover letter outlining your research interests, a CV, and the names and contact information of 3 references to Dr. Femke Streijger by email or post (click for mailing address).

Recent publications

  • Dionne, A et al.. 2024. Canadian Spine Society: 24th Annual Scientific Conference, Wednesday, February 28 - Saturday, March 2, Fairmont Chateau Whistler, Whistler, B.C., Canada.. Can J Surg. doi: 10.1503/cjs.011424.
  • Moskven, E et al.. 2024. Mitigating Medical Adverse Events Following Spinal Surgery: The Effectiveness of a Postoperative Quality Improvement (QI) Care Bundle.. Qual Manag Health Care. doi: 10.1097/QMH.0000000000000488.
  • Shen, Z et al.. 2024. Astrocytic Ryk signaling coordinates scarring and wound healing after spinal cord injury.. bioRxiv. doi: 10.1101/2024.10.16.618727.
  • Davies, BM et al.. 2024. A minimum data set-Core outcome set, core data elements, and core measurement set-For degenerative cervical myelopathy research (AO Spine RECODE DCM): A consensus study.. PLoS Med. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1004447.
  • Dandurand, C et al.. 2024. Out-of-hours emergent surgery for degenerative spinal disease in Canada: a retrospective cohort study from a national registry.. Lancet Reg Health Am. doi: 10.1016/j.lana.2024.100816.
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