Jeffrey Hill is a British scientist who is currently Vice President and Head of Biology, Center for Translational Research at the Shenzhen Bay Laboratory. He was formerly a Professor of

Drug Discovery In the fields of medicine, biotechnology and pharmacology, drug discovery is the process by which new candidate medications are discovered. Historically, drugs were discovered by identifying the active ingredient from traditional remedies or by ...

and director of the Sussex Drug Discovery Centre at the

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

. He contributed to the discovery of Singapore's first publicly funded drug candidates during his time at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).

Education and early career

Hill worked as a Medical Laboratory Scientific Officer at

Nevill Hall Hospital Nevill Hall Hospital ( cy, Ysbyty Nevill Hall) is a district general hospital in Abergavenny, north Monmouthshire, Wales. It is managed by the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board. History The site was originally occupied by The Brooks, a co ...

, Abergavenny, Wales before completing his university education at

Cardiff University , latin_name = , image_name = Shield of the University of Cardiff.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms of Cardiff University , motto = cy, Gwirionedd, Undod a Chytgord , mottoeng = Truth, Unity and Concord , established = 1 ...

where his doctoral research focused on aspartic proteinases. He developed an interest in drug discovery for tropical diseases and after completing a

WHO Who or WHO may refer to: * Who (pronoun), an interrogative or relative pronoun * Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism * World Health Organization Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Who, a creature in the Dr. Seuss book ''Horton Hear ...

funded postdoctoral project on plasmodial proteinases in 1997, he became a Group Leader at

Mahidol University Mahidol University (Mahidol), an autonomous research institution in Thailand, had its origin in the establishment of Siriraj Hospital in 1888. Mahidol had an acceptance rate for Medicine of 0.4% as of the 2016 academic year. Becoming the Univers ...

. His research group focused on the characterisation of proteinases from a number of viruses including

dengue Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms typically begin three to fourteen days after infection. These may include a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic ...

Career

In 1998, Hill returned to the United Kingdom and joined GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). He worked at the company for 8 years in both the Discovery Research and Genetics Research divisions where he was involved in target validation, assay development and biomarker discovery. He received the Scientific Impact Award at GSK for cloning a novel human

GPCR G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), also known as seven-(pass)-transmembrane domain receptors, 7TM receptors, heptahelical receptors, serpentine receptors, and G protein-linked receptors (GPLR), form a large group of evolutionarily-related p ...

and an Exceptional Science Award for the identification of novel biomarkers. Hill left GSK in 2006 to join A*STAR's Bioinformatics Institute where he worked on gastric cancer biomarkers before helping Sir David Lane and Nobel Laureate

Sydney Brenner Sydney Brenner (13 January 1927 – 5 April 2019) was a South African biologist. In 2002, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with H. Robert Horvitz and Sir John E. Sulston. Brenner made significant contributions to work ...

establish the Experimental Therapeutics Centre (ETC), an A*STAR research institute focused on the discovery of drug candidates in 2007. Working with Alex Matter, Hill led the institute in putting three novel molecular entities into the clinic: a vaccine based on virus like particle technology, a MNK

kinase inhibitor A protein kinase inhibitor is a type of enzyme inhibitor that blocks the action of one or more protein kinases. Protein kinases are enzymes that phosphorylate (add a phosphate, or PO4, group) to a protein and can modulate its function. The phospha ...

for blood cancers and a

PORCN PORCN (porcupine homolog – Drosophila) is a human gene. The protein is homologous to other membrane-bound O-acyltransferases. Function The protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains ...

inhibitor for solid tumours. Other molecules discovered by his group have been used as chemical probes by other researchers to study autism and neurodegenerative diseases. His work at ETC led him to receive the Ministry of Trade and Industry's Borderless Award and substantial research funding (including S$10 million for a cancer companion diagnostics program). Hill returned to the United Kingdom in 2019 to take up a position at the University of Sussex. While he was a Professor in the School of Life Sciences and director of the university's drug discovery department he led a number of ion channel projects and investigated EBV driven cancers, for which he received funding from the

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of one of the predecessors of Glaxo ...

and

Cancer Research UK Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world's largest independent cancer research organization. It is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man, and was formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and t ...

. In 2021, Hill moved to China to become Vice President at the Shenzhen Bay Laboratory. He is based at the Center for Translational Research where is Head of Biology and pursues

targets ''Targets'' is a 1968 American crime thriller film directed by Peter Bogdanovich, produced by Roger Corman, and written by Polly Platt and Bogdanovich, with cinematography by László Kovács.Stephen Jacobs, ''Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster' ...

in infectious diseases and oncology.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Jeffrey Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Welsh pharmacologists Academics of the University of Sussex GSK plc people