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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, SDS-PAGE and estern blotting, expression and purification of recombinant proteins, 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis, difference in-gel electrophoresis, site directed mutagenesis, confocal microscopy, live cell imaging, electron microscopy, real-time PCR, miRNA, RNAi, calcium flux anc cell free conversion assays.
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Andrew Hill Bio
Associate Professor Andrew Hill is an ARC Future Fellow and Honorary NHMRC Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Melbourne. His laboratory is based at the Bio21 Institute.
In 1992, Andrew began working on prion diseases in the UK, researched the molecular properties of human and animal prion strains and identified the link between BSE and a new form of prion disease in humans - variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease that emerged in 1996. This work led to a number of high profile publications in Nature and Science and to the development of a diagnostic and classification system for human prion diseases.
He undertook his PhD at Imperial College, London and 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 Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department 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 and most recently the ASBMB Merck Research Excellence Medal for 2010.
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Hill Research Group
Research Staff
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Dr Shayne Bellingham (NHMRC Biomedical Training Fellow)
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Dr Percy Chu (Post Doc)
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Dr Lesley Cheng (Post Doc)
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Ms Robyn Sharples
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Mr Ben Scicluna
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Mr Bradley Coleman
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Ms Belinda Guo
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Ms Leah Cui (jointly supervised with Dimitri Sviridov, Baker IDI)
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Ms Saskia Polling (jointly supervised with Danny Hatters, Biochem / Bio21
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Mr. Timothy Johanssen (jointly supervised with Kevin Barnham, Path/Bio21)
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