PhD student in Experimental Medicine
Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Canada
Andrea Wong Koo is a second-year PhD student in Experimental Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Cognition & Brain, involving interdisciplinary training in neuroscience, psychology, and artificial intelligence.
Her passion lies in mental health and translational research, with experience across preclinical and clinical settings. Pre-clinically, she has worked with behavioural pharmacology models examining cognitive dysfunction in neuropsychiatric disorders, including working memory, anxiety, and risk-reward decision making. Clinically, she focuses on opioid use research, contributing to the development of e-mental health tools, and conducting cohort-based analyses to inform person-centred interventions in opioid use, polysubstance use, chronic pain, withdrawal management, and trauma.
Andrea’s PhD studies centre around youth, aiming to improve evidence-based treatments and systems of care for opioid use and psychiatric comorbidities through predictive modelling of suicide co-occurrence, acquired brain injury, and retention in care.
She has dedicated over 10 years of working with diverse and underserved populations in non-profit leadership, teaching, and direct support roles. She currently volunteers as a First Responder in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, providing overdose first aid, harm reduction, and resource distribution. She is also engaged in knowledge translation and community-based participatory research with UBC's MATRIX-N Research Cluster and Kílala Lelum, an Indigenous Health and Healing Cooperative.
Andrea is pursuing a career at the intersection of research and clinical practice to advance meaningful, recovery-oriented impact.
