David Granville

Dr. David Granville is executive director of Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute (VCHRI) and associate dean of research in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Bristish Columbia (UBC). He is also a professor in UBC's Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Dr. Granville is a principal investigator at the International Collaboration On Repair Discoveries (ICORD) and associate director of the BC Professional Firefighters’ Burn and Wound Healing Research Group at the UBC Division of Plastic Surgery. His research program focuses on mechanisms of tissue injury, factors that impair healing (e.g. aging, diabetes, environmental influences) and the discovery of novel therapeutics for age-related and chronic inflammatory conditions. 

In his early career (1994-2001), Dr. Granville’s preclinical research at the UBC spinoff biotechnology company, QLT Inc., supported the development and approval of Visudyne® as the first treatment for age-related macular degeneration—the leading cause of blindness in older adults. His research was referred to on the drug label for Visudyne® and he is listed as a primary inventor on patents pertaining to his preclinical work related to this drug. 

In 2001, Dr. Granville relocated to the Scripps Research Institute in California where his research identified a novel therapeutic approach for reducing ischemic damage to the heart due to myocardial infarction (also known as the cardiac ischemia and reperfusion injury). Dr. Granville is a primary inventor on several publications and patents pertaining to the latter discoveries that led to the formation of Radical Therapeutix Inc. (San Diego, CA). 

In 2003, Dr. Granville was recruited to UBC as a Canada Research Chair and Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research scholar. In 2005, he was awarded a Canada Top 40 Under 40™ award by Caldwell Partners. He also received the 2006 UBC Outstanding Young Alumnus Award, 2007 SFU Academic Alumnus Award, 2008 Canadian Association of Pathologists Junior Scientist Award, 2010 Business in Vancouver Top Forty Under 40 Award and was a runner-up for the prestigious Louis and Arnold Katz Basic Science Prize at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions. In 2014, he was named as a Fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA). Dr. Granville was also inducted as a Scholar of the Royal Society of Canada. 

Since arriving at UBC, his translational research program has continued to focus on tissue injury, inflammation and repair resulting in numerous publications, patents leading to the formation of a local biotechnology spinoff company.