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The Hill laboratory focuses on neurodegenerative diseases caused by protein misfolding and aggregation, in particular Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD).
The group are interested in dissecting the pathways involved in the conversion of the normal cellular form of the prion protein (PrPC) to the abnormal, disease associated isoform (PrPSc). Current work involves looking at cell to cell infection via exosomes, mutational analysis of specific motifs thought to play a role in protein misfolding, protein trafficking and identification of the toxic species. The research group has also developed novel cell based systems for studying the generation and trafficking of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) and the generation of the Aβ peptide in cell culture. They have developed methods for detecting exosomes in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and lymph, providing the potential for their use in biomarker discovery.
Techniques include: Work involves the use of cell culture, expression and purification of recombinant proteins, 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis, difference in-gel electrophoresis, site directed mutagenesis, confocal microscopy, circular dichroism, fluorescence spectroscopy, preparative ultracentrifugation, and RNA interference.
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Andrew Hill Bio
Associate Professor Andrew Hill holds a Senior Lecturer and NHMRC Level 2 Career Development Award position in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (DBMB) at the University of Melbourne. His labaoratory is based at the Bio21 Institute. He undertook his PhD at Imperial College, London and identified a molecular link between BSE ('mad-cow' disease) and a new form of prion disease in humans - variant CJD (vCJD).
Following further post-doctoral work in the MRC Prion Unit, also in London, Andrew came to Australia in 2000 as a Wellcome Prize Travelling Research Fellow, where he joined Colin Master's group at the University of Melbourne to widen his research interests into other neurodegenerative disorders. He moved to the DBMB as a Senior Lecturer and RD Wright Fellow in 2003 and established his own laboratory studying the molecular and cellular biology of prion and Alzheimer's diseases.
Andrew has been the recipient of several awards and prizes including the 2005 ASBMB Edman Award, a Young Tall Poppy Award in 2006, and a Level 2 Career Development Award from the NHMRC in 2008.
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Hill Research Group
Research Staff
- Robyn Sharples
- Laura Ellett
- Shayne Bellingham
- Percy Chu
- Janine Kuelich
Postgraduate Students
- Sen Han
- Rebecca Nisbet
- Chris Harrison
- Emma Toulmin
- Ryan Naylor
- Vanessa Wall
- Bradley Coleman
- Belinda Guo
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