Interdisciplinary Student Health Conference (ISHC)

The UBC Okanagan Interdisciplinary Student Health Conference (ISHC) brings together students from across UBC Okanagan to showcase their health science research and public health experiences through engaging presentations.

This student-led conference is centred on showcasing undergraduate and graduate student researchers. Students are invited to submit abstracts for poster or oral presentations. Exemplary presentations will be recognized at the end of the conference.

ISHC 2026 will take place on Saturday, March 7^th, 2026, in the Engineering, Management and Education (EME) Building.

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Isaac Li

Dr. Isaac Li is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of British Columbia Okanagan and the Canada Research Chair in Single-Molecule Biophysics & Mechanobiology. He received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry at the University of Toronto, where he studied hydrophobic interactions with single-molecule techniques, before continuing on as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for the Physics of Living Cells at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He joined UBC Okanagan in 2016 and established the Li Lab in Single-Molecule Mechanobiology. Li Lab’s current research is focused in the following areas:

1. Mechanobiology at the single-molecule level
2. DNA-based smart biosensors, molecular machines and biomaterials
3. Techniques to manipulate individual molecules and cells
4. Disease screening by extracellular vesicles

Li Lab aims to uncover how mechanical forces at the molecular and cellular levels drive disease and to translate these insights into new approaches for disease diagnosis and therapy.

View the full 2026 ISHC Event Program

Register to attend the ISHC

The event is free to attend and registration is required.

Register to attend

Stay connected through our Instagram for the latest updates, and don’t miss the opportunity to explore undergraduate research from students across the UBC community. If you have any other questions, please contact ubco.ishc@ubc.ca. 

Photos from last year’s conference