Freelance article for St. Paul’s Hospital

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October 2014

The stakes are high in the field of Health Sciences research, but the reward of helping people makes it worth it for UBC Cell Biology and Genetics grad Mihai Cirstea. “I’ve always liked the Health Sciences and I felt this degree could lead to a career where I could help save lives, either through medicine or through research.” 

Since completing his Bachelor of Science degree in 2011, Cirstea has been employed at the UBC Centre for Heart Lung Innovation at St. Paul’s Hospital where he plays a critical role as a lead research scientist, doing clinical research on improving outcomes for patients with sepsis – a potentially life-threatening complication of an infection.  

For Cirstea, his experience as a student at UBC solidified his desire to pursue this type of research in his career. “UBC is a world-class institution in terms of their medical program and the research facilities, and I got a lot of exposure to that. The experience I gained working in those facilities, and the connections I made during my degree, excited a passion in me to pursue a career doing health research at UBC.” 

Cirstea and his team at the UBC Centre for Heart Lung Innovation are working to fight sepsis, which has a mortality rate of roughly thirty percent. Their lab has recently developed a potential new treatment to boost the body’s natural ability to clear infectious toxins from the blood during sepsis, which could be a major step to improve the survival rate of patients affected by this condition. “Soon we’ll be starting a clinical trial to test this treatment’s ability to significantly reduce complications and mortality associated with sepsis.” 

Doing clinical research is important to Cirstea for many reasons, not least of which is the ability to help those who are most in need in his community. “Many of the patients we see come into St. Paul’s Hospital are from the Downtown Eastside, which allows me the opportunity to help improve the lives of one of Canada’s most vulnerable populations in a meaningful way,” Cirstea reflects. 

The future of medicine and health research is changing, and Cirstea is excited at the prospect of what his work can achieve, and how it will contribute to science innovation in the future. He notes that the aging population, increases in chronic diseases, and overwhelming economic strains on the healthcare system have led to an increased focus on personalized medicine and outcomes-based research. 

Cirstea recognizes that UBC is playing an instrumental role in this rapidly changing field, and he credits his University for enabling him to do the important work he is doing. “UBC’s partnership with St. Paul’s Hospital allows our research program to work directly with sepsis patients in the hospital setting, which enables cutting-edge bench-to-bedside research that will have direct and immediate benefits for our patients and for the entire research field.” 

Article by Milena Constanda
Photo: Greg Morton for Promise Magazine