Accessibility statement

Dr Chris H. Hill
Sir Henry Dale Fellow

Biography

Chris obtained his PhD in the laboratories of Dr Janet Deane and Professor Randy Read at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, studying the structure and mechanism of lysosomal hydrolase enzymes (PNAS 110, 20479-84, 2013; Chem Sci. 6, 3075-3086, 2015; Acta Cryst. F 71, 895-900, 2015). Here, he determined the crystal structure of a tetrameric GALC-SapA complex, defining the molecular basis for glycolipid presentation to hydrolase enzymes by lipid-transfer proteins (Nat Commun. 9, 151, 2018). 

In 2015, he joined the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology as a Career Development Fellow to work with Dr Lori Passmore on the pre-mRNA cleavage and polyadenylation machinery. By using a combination of X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM and mass spectrometry to study key sub-complexes, he revealed the mechanistic principles of RNA recognition, nuclease activation and inhibition of the host machinery by Influenza A NS1 (Mol Cell 73, 1217-1231, 2019; Science 358, 1056-1059, 2017). 

To further explore how viral proteins interfere with cellular information transfer, Chris moved to the Department of Pathology at the University of Cambridge in 2018 to direct a structural and biophysical programme of work for Prof. Ian Brierley on ribosomal frameshifting (Nucleic Acids Res. 47, 8207-8223, 2019). Here, his work on the EMCV 2A protein revealed a novel RNA-binding fold, and a high-resolution cryo-EM structure showed how this protein binds to elongating ribosomes and interferes with translation. 

In 2021, Chris was awarded a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship from the Wellcome Trust and Royal Society to establish his own research group at the University of York. Chris is also passionate about undergraduate teaching and is a former Fellow and College Lecturer in Natural Sciences at Queens’ College, Cambridge (2018-2021).

You can find Chris on:

Contact details

Dr Chris H. Hill, PhD
Sir Henry Dale Fellow and Principal Investigator Department of Biology
(B/L/021)
University of York
Wentworth Way
York
YO10 5DD

Tel: +44(0)1904 328688 (office), +44(0)7557 121443 (mobile)